Aloha from Hawaii. Ron Grooved a Motorcraft 2150 carb a couple years ago with hopes of improving her 12 MPG. When nothing worked, Ron assured me to keep searching for those pesky vacuum leaks! Over the months when some mechanics couldn't, others kept finding more!

Now, although the performance is way better and I've done everything else to restore the burley 2F engine, I still have engine leaks from the head to the oil pan. Just ordered a head gasket set off ebay for $75 (should have done a long time ago) and will re-seal the engine in the next week. I'll report back then!

I still have faith.

Good for you for keeping the faith! If your '86 Toyota is like the '86 Honda I used to have they have lots of vac lines. If you can, I would suggest putting smoke to the intake - a dealership should have an emissions tester which has smoke capabilities. This might be the quickest way to find all your vac leaks.

Up here in Northern Michigan, all '86 Toyotas have breathed their last - good for you to keep yours going. I know they are stout vehicles needing the Groove.

Keep us posted and keep up the good work!

Scott Castleberg
Pellston, MI

I de-smoged the Fj60 and there are very little vacume lines. Hopefully the problems (10MPG, bad smell and low power) will be fixed when I put in the new head gasket set of seals.

That should actually help quite a bit, keeping in mind that if your head gasket was leaking, not only were you losing vacuum but compression as well.

Once you have it all together, just run down the checklist.

PCV line moved to the intake side and that port capped (increases manifold vacuum)

Spark plugs gapped 20% over spec.

Since you've de-smogged it, does it have a computer and if so can you get readings from it.

We would be looking for MAF, SHRTFT1, LONGFT1 and LOAD_PCT. These will indicate the efficiency of the engine and what direction to go if any.

Later

Karl Fortner
Tacoma, Wa.
GadgetmanTacoma