Hey everyone. I've been on here lurking for a few months and finally have a reason to start posting.

I got into a '95 with the 3.0 and auto trans for what I thought at the time was a pretty good deal. It is super clean inside and out and seemed to run fine. Power isn't anything to rave about but having never owned one before I assumed it was fine. Engine was supposedly replaced with a JDM unit and has an oil pan leak that I was well aware of as well as non-functioning AC. Both projects I felt super comfortable handling. California car all its life , original owner and looked well maintained.

So after the initial joys of a new ride, cruising it around and finding a few fire roads to play on, it was time to get down to business getting this thing super reliable and roadworthy.

First hurdle, SMOG. I took it to my local station and it failed for a number of reasons. Illegal cat (I didn't know there were supposed to be serial numbers on it in California), non-functioning check engine light (I didn't think to check. Out of sight out of mind), high emissions on all levels, timing way off.

Took the dash apart to chase down the check engine light. No bulb......my inner voice was starting to tell me something might be up. New bulb = Check engine light is now on. Jumped the leads on the diagnostics box and found code 27 which is the sub O2 sensor. So I bought the correct cat and welded it in as well as front and rear O2 sensors since we need 2 of them here in Cali. Hmmmm, so why do I have a code for the sub O2 sensor? Chased the wires in the loom up to a dead end where they were tied into some random wiring that I still cannot identify. I downloaded the FSM and have a Haynes my neighbor loaned me and became a 4runner wiring diagram pro. Chased the wires up to the computer where there are no pinouts in the harness for the sub O2 sensor (how did they pass smog all these years?). Dammit, now I'm really starting to feel screwed here. So off to pick-a-part where I pulled an entire wiring harness from another '95 that has everything intact. Dissect the harness to grab what I need from the sub O2 sensor and the various connectors and pins needed to connect to the computer. I ran the 2 wires to their respective homes in the ECU and tapped into the main O2 sensor wires for the ground and the pink and white wire since they are common in the main loom. So now the check engine light is off. But, and its a big one, the engine now momentarily loses all power from the 1-2 upshift at 2500rpm and immediately returns but overall power is way down. This is a repeatable phenomenon which goes away when I disconnect the sub O2 sensor. I retrace my wiring and everything checks out so I am assuming that one of the input signals to the ECU is incorrect causing this to happen momentarily. So now with the timing set correctly and the wiring corrected, I have a truck that is undrivable and won't pass smog because there isn't enough power to overcome the dyno. My smog guy was more than cool to let me try and dial it in while we were there and still get it to meet spec but I need to be at about 25*BTDC to keep the torque up with everything connected correctly which won't allow me to pass. As a plus (yes, there's at least one!) the truck passes emissions and everything else except the timing so I'm at least closer.

So now upon closer inspection, the distributor is rotated counter clockwise all the way to the limits of its movement in order to be at 10*BTDC at idle. So this tells me something deeper is off. As in, my timing belt might be off a tooth allowing the engine to run but having zero power which would explain why the truck had 35*BTDC timing when I brought it home. This might also explain the momentary total loss of power on upshift as the ECU tries to make adjustments on the fly.

Needless to say I'm pretty disheartened but I'm not one to throw in the towel so easily.

The first big question is if you guys know how to inspect the timing belt positioning without yanking the entire front off the engine? I didn't immediately see any inspection windows or anything but I honestly didn't poke around there too much yet.

Second, do you have any other suggestions on what to look for? No I'm not ready to junk the truck just yet! LOL

So hopefully this unfinished saga has at least kept you interested and possibly even made you chuckle a little bit. All I can do now is laugh it off and chase down the gremlins one by one because I am super eager to fab up some bumpers and sliders as well as a few other tasteful mods and get this thing dirty!

Looking forward to meeting you all via the interwebs, Ferrett aka Sean