Originally Posted by jeremyc74

I've actually owned two vehicles over the years that had valve timing issues (an old Mazda 323 with a stripped keyway on the crank, and a 2nd Gen 4Runner) and both of those got harder to start when the problem started happening. There were other symptoms as well, such as reduced power and horrible fuel economy.

Since the timing belt on 3rd Gens lasts so long I'd say it's a long shot that that's what the problem is here, but I'd definitely pull the timing belt cover, bring the crank around to the TDC mark, and see where the pulleys are at. It's too easy to rule this out and then move on to something else.

The compression check will fail if the valve timing is off enough, so I'd want to make sure it's right before pulling plugs.