Toyota gt-four Problems (3SGTE)

[mikemikemike222]

Alright guys some of you remember kellen ( T4EMFAINT). Well i bought his 1990 gt-four off of him.
All was well untill about a couple days ago, when i took her for a wash. Right after i washed her i parked her for 5 hurs and went to work.
When i came out and started to drive her again i noticed that as soon as i applied heavy throttle, or as soon as i hit boost, the car will sputter and shake instead of the nice turbo pull.
i have no clue were to start looking, i looked to vaccum leaks but all of my lines seem to be nice and tight. The car still runs fine other than that problem.
Oh and i cannot get over 5 Psi...

Anyone who might know that would be great !! thanks alot in advance

[cjay^]

sounds like an ignition problem, if your car was an SR20 I would suggest checking the coilpacks. If the 3SGTE has coilpacks (i think it does) you should start there.

[sr20s14zenki]

Sounds like either a vacuum leak, or you got something wet. Did you wash under the hood? check distributor connectors, coil connectors, and connections to your air flow meter. Water will reak havok on all kinds of electrical connectors with worn out weather proofing.

[traviswithaG]

oh mine did this exact same thing
give me a sec to dig up some old pics of my fix

[traviswithaG]

okay no pictures. so ill do my best to explain. ( If you hate poor grammar and horrible spelling please stop reading now)

This most definatly is ingnitor related. But if your problem is like mine, it sure is an easy fix. incase you are unaware your ignitor is in the top right hand corner of your engine bay bollted to the firewall.
it has a thick black wire that runs to the centre of your distributor.

-- find a 3 foot pieace of wire.
-- unscrew ignitor from it's home
--- attach one end of wire to the screw or the actual grounding body of the ignitor.

---re attach ingnitor to orginal place with the wire attached to the screw or the gorunding body of the ignitor.


-- attach the opposite end of your wire to the negative battery terrminal. be sure boths ends are secure and will not come loose.

-- go for a drive.. if it worked you may want to move your ground wire to a bolt or screw on the engine or body of car for a cleaner look.

-- if it did not work then you can test the ignitor by simply un plugging the fat wire that goes to the distributor and holding it about an inch away from where it was originally plugged into. have someone turn the key. youll want to see spark jumping between the wire in ur hand and the ignitor. also perhaps unplugging a few spark plugs so the car does not start is a good idea as well. (note:I had plenty of spark in my ingnitor and the added ground wire fixed my problem)

if your ignitor is wokring fine and problem is still there. then id recomend replacing your distributor cap and rotor these are cheap and easy to replace and should be replaced on a 20 year old car anyways.

if problem still presists please pm me for more alternative soulutions. after this it get's expensive

--

[stevo 27]

happen on mine i fried the airflow meter the first time
second time real bad boost leak top mount intercooler was rubbing on the valve cover and put a hole in the bottom

[03ozwhip]

i know that when i had my sw20 this happened right when i first got it. so many things it could be i guess, but i changed my plugs, wires and distributor and that fixed my issue. i suggest starting there as its an easy cheapish fix.

[mikemikemike222]

Originally posted by 03ozwhip
i know that when i had my sw20 this happened right when i first got it. so many things it could be i guess, but i changed my plugs, wires and distributor and that fixed my issue. i suggest starting there as its an easy cheapish fix.

alright guys i MUST thank you ALOT for this information.
Sadly i have t drive the car to work tonight, but i am off tomorrow, so i will start doing all of thee things you guys reccommended, hopefully this fixes my problem..

i will be back when i check shit out and i will be sure to let all of you know how is went

[LLLimit]

I had these problems before, same event and symptoms:
-wash
-heavy throttle & boost.

I left my car to a friend at toyota to do a valve cover change, and while he was at it he washed the engine too. Then the sputtering stared.

I changed my distributor and spark plugs. When I tried to pull the plugs out, I noticed there was a lot of water sitting in the hole, looked like the water was impeding the electrical connection. Cleaned it up, soaked up water with a towel and she was basically fine.

In my case, the seal from the spark plug wires to the valve cover wasnt too good, so water got in there.

[mr2mike]

The 3SGTE is notorious for going through distributor caps and rotors, plugs and wires. If these aren't fresh, then most likely they are the problem. I can't tell you which part it is but personally I've come across this many times. The car will just shudder. Clean up the plugs generally people go with the copper core as they're colder and cheaper to replace most often.

Doubtful it's a boost leak but it could be. Also a wet AFM could occur but if it dries out and it's still happening then I'd bet ignition like I stated above.

[Redlyne_mr2]

If you can get into a garage take a hair dryer to the cap, rotor, plugs etc.

[mikemikemike222]

Originally posted by LLLimit
I had these problems before, same event and symptoms:
-wash
-heavy throttle & boost.

I left my car to a friend at toyota to do a valve cover change, and while he was at it he washed the engine too. Then the sputtering stared.

I changed my distributor and spark plugs. When I tried to pull the plugs out, I noticed there was a lot of water sitting in the hole, looked like the water was impeding the electrical connection. Cleaned it up, soaked up water with a towel and she was basically fine.

In my case, the seal from the spark plug wires to the valve cover wasnt too good, so water got in there.

Alright thanks guys!! i apprecite the help, now i am a little at ease with this whole problem. i will check her out soon

[mikemikemike222]

Hey guys, so i went and looked in the engine bay.
This may seem really stupid but i could not locate my spark plugs..
Are they loacated somewere that i wouldnt know were to look??

Thanks

[mr2mike]

You've got that 3S-GTE motor in a Celica?
The plugs will be under the intercooler. Big black box ontop of the motor. Front and center.
Never taken one of those off but I'm assuming it's the two hose clamps at either end that get loosened off and maybe a support bracket holding the intercooler on. Then you should have enough play to move it to the side.

If it's an air to water IC, then there could be other hoses but I would try not to take those off since they'll have fluid in them. They'll be easy to spot, they'll be smaller in diameter than the big intake lines that I told you to remove.

Plugs should be right up top going into the valve cover. Once that IC is off it's one of the easiest cars to take the plugs out of.

[LLLimit]

http://memweb.newsguy.com/~gtfour/

if anyone wants to point it out haha

[mikemikemike222]

Originally posted by mr2mike
You've got that 3S-GTE motor in a Celica?
The plugs will be under the intercooler. Big black box ontop of the motor. Front and center.
Never taken one of those off but I'm assuming it's the two hose clamps at either end that get loosened off and maybe a support bracket holding the intercooler on. Then you should have enough play to move it to the side.

If it's an air to water IC, then there could be other hoses but I would try not to take those off since they'll have fluid in them. They'll be easy to spot, they'll be smaller in diameter than the big intake lines that I told you to remove.

Plugs should be right up top going into the valve cover. Once that IC is off it's one of the easiest cars to take the plugs out of.

Awsome!! thanks i never even thought to check under the intercooler.

[mikemikemike222]

Alright guys i FINALLY got around to checking her out, looked at my distributor... Fuck.
Distributor cao and rotor were done, picking the parts up tomorrow and hopefully that will fix my problem,

Thanks all who helped me figure this out.

[mikemikemike222]

Alright guys i decided to come bck with an update, i looked at my distributor, and the rotor was fucked.

Thought oh for sure here is my problem, changed the cap and rotor, no moisture inside of it.
Took it for a drive, a little more power, and less sputtering but the sputtering is definatly still there under heavy throttle/boost.

Next thing is the spark plugs and wires, ill be back to let all of you know if THAT changes my problem...

[mr2mike]

Confident that it will.

Just secure your intake couplers properly when done or they'll leak air and cause issues.

[mikemikemike222]

[QUOTE]Originally posted by mr2mike
Confident that it will.

Just secure your intake couplers properly when done or they'll leak air and cause issues. [/QUOTE

Coupling for the TMIC?

and the place that i went to get my shit from, had the spark plugs in stock, but now i have to wait untill monday for the new wires.
All of it costed me 87.00 and for the distibutor it was like 40.00 for the rotor and cap.


Could i just throw in the new spark plugs without the wires?? and could that fix the problem for the weekend untill i can get around to changing the wires as well?

i would still like to change the wires because in fact the havent been changed in 20 years. so i think its about time.