Toyota Repair: Hard/No Starting at -30, fuel sprays, fuel spray

Question
hi,

i have a 1990 toyota p/u with the v6 engine and EFI. it has 124k miles on it and has had the timing belt changed two months ago.

i live in alaska and now that winter is here i am having trouble starting the truck. the vehicle is plugged in, ie, block heater and oil pan heater and battery heater.

it has been starting when the temp is above zero. from zero to -15 (all temps in F) the starting has been rough. it turns over fine and will fire, but it does so in a rough manner. once going the engine will idle rough and not really get up to a proper cold weather idle speed for a few minutes. once the engine has been started in the morning i have no problem with it starting again that day.

now this morning the temp was -25 and the truck initially started (very rough), clunked along for a few seconds, and stopped. since then it has turned over (and over and over) but there has been no apparent firing. at this point the battery is getting pretty well exhausted.

any thoughts would be much appreciated.

thanks.

-mike

Answer
It has either lost fuel pressure or current to the spark plugs.
Remove the coil wire from the distributor cap and see if there is spark to ground when cranking the engine, if there is check for fuel pressure, you can do this, although a not very accurate method, but at least it will determine if there is pressure, by loosening the cold start injector fitting, it's located on the intake chamber on the left(standing in front) it's a 12 mm fitting with an electrical connector on it, crank the engine and see if fuel sprays out, if the fuel pump is good there will be a lot of fuel spray so be careful that there is no spark or flame anywhere and do this only for a short time, just enough to confirm fuel pressure.
If the fuel pump is bad there will be no fuel at all or very little.