96playa

ok first i want to give yall props for helping me this far.

let me give a little background. if you dont want to read all this scroll to ##problem here##

i bought a 92 es300 for my wife for $1000. i knew it was going to need some work because it wasn't taking care of that well and it shows. i have always driven camry's since i was in high school never had any major problems. this lexus didn't seem to bad though so i bought it.

when i bought it it was missing real bad it had no leaks and it had no check engine lights, but it rattled real bad on the front end. so i figured struts and a tune up.

went and did a "full" service check what ever that means at the dealership.
the dealer listed a few things .
waterpump leak, major tune up,powersteering gear leak,battery cables,and since they werein there change timing belt and pulleys. end total $3500

now im not the master mechanic but i do no somethings. so i decided to do most of the work myself. thanks to this forum i was able to do mostly every thing.
i did the tune up first, after getting into it i noticed someone had already changed plugs and wires. i changed them again. the car ran better but it was still missing noticed they had crossed 1 and 3 wires on the distributor.switched them and the car ran smooth and quiet. i changed rotor a distributor also. so at this point car running fine.
then i did water pump, and timing belt.not that bad after you get that stubborn pully /balancer off! finished it all ran fine after a couple of starts out of timing,also changed theromostat.
when i took the passenger side wheel off i noticed i need,swaybar bushing,right c.v axle,all bushings control arm, ball joint,tie rod ends, man i was dissapointed. then i found a complete suspension set on ebay for 168 installed all that with the powersteering gear at the same time.


###Problem starts here#
after doing all this work icrank the car up it was running smooth,drove it around the block no lights but i noticed loss of power after couple of turns. checked guages no problem. got back home and the car was smoking real bad cut the car of and heard the radiator bubbling. i figured i was low on antifreeze so i topped it off with anti freeze still running hot and now started missing. got bak on this forum and found out 3 problems, fan,air in system,loss compression.

checked fan by doing the jumper fan turned faster. so i thought it could be the new thermostat. put the old one back in,and got the air out the system.did them both at the same time so iont know which one solved the problem but it stopped over heating but the miss is still there.still no cel, and the temp hand never showed it was overheating!!

i did notice also the steering pump lines are leaking too.

@@just wondering if ther's any thing else i can check before i get a compression check any ideas????/

mmatheny

Well, hard to tell from this, but sounds like a bent valve, caused by the timing belt either put on a notch or two off or slipped - did you change the tensioner at the same time?

96playa

i reused the tensioner, i left out that whoever had it before me also had changed the belt, tensioners and pulleys @ 96,000 so says the sticker on the cover. but i went ahead and changed the belt because they didn,t change the water pump, and supposedly it was leaking per the dealership, never saw a drip. changed all pulleys also, but not the tensioner. ijust went out and took the cover off the belt and its still tight with the engine running a well.

mmatheny

Sorry, I misread - when you mentioned loss of compression, that was a possible cause of the misfire! Is it a constant misfire, or random?
First, pull all plugs ad look for one that is fouled - that will be the cylinder that is misfiring. Once you figure that out, get back to us.

96playa

while i go check the plugs think about this. it only misfires i say misfire but its not like a backfire its more like spuddering at idle. when ever you accelerator its smooth. but after it gets going it just has a lost for power.

mmatheny

Could be a vacuum leak.

96playa

so i go out to check the spark plugs and all still look new. now i did have a rich fuel smell, my next step is to let the gas run out and see if it has bad gas. since now its on E. thanks for helping me though.

mmatheny

Sorry - wish llcool would chime in here - he always has an answer (like my wife!)

llcoolpass

Well you didn't bend a valve from misplacement of the timing belt [well it's extremely unlikely] since the 3VZ-FE engine is non-interference. Only possible when there is extreme, extreme, extreme carbon buildup or weird problems that are not worth explaining.

How did the coolant look, that YOU REPLACED when you changed the WATER PUMP, rusty and filled with muck? Did you fully bleed the cooling system of AIR before driving it around, THEN you still saw a steady stream of little bubbles and such? Where I'm going with this: Check your head gasket(s) is(are) not failed.

96playa

whats up llcool thanks for chiming in.

the coolant was still green when i changed the pump, as far as i know the person i bought it from could have flushed it recently. to make it look good but yea it was good and green. the thing im concerned about is the temp hand never shows hot at all. after i ran it about a mile or 2 ,turned it off the overflow was empty the it bubbled all the way to full and stopped. ther is no smoke, no cel, or any thing just rough idle while yoour driving it just seems real sluggish. there is nolonger any coolant leak since i opened the 2nd radiator cap and poured coolant until it flowed and not bubbled, now it flowing and no steamor anything just the miss.

mmatheny

Are there any ECM codes?

96playa

the cel is not flashing or on at all,about to do a compression check

mmatheny

And you know the light lights? I would at least see if Autozone or someone can pull any hidden codes.

96playa

the light does come on at start up, then cuts off.
today i went to do a compression check . did the front first since they where the easiest. cylinder 2 got up to 175-180. got to cylinder 4 and it hit 160 and the hose blew off the compression tool, so now i have to go find another tool befor everybody closes.

llcoolpass

I dont get it, you did the check for head gasket failure, though right?[google [or this site search maybe] will yield a lot of info] my cylinder 2, right after doing head gasket, and pretty cold, only ran it for 30 second, was about 180 as well. so that is a good sign, for the front bank so far. let us know...