Originally Posted by jasongpz

What was the resolution to this problem? I have a 98 4Runner 2WD auto trans with an almost identical situation- replaced head gaskets, reassembled the engine, and now the timing seems screwed up. All timing marks line up, double checked the cam alignment, spark plug wires ar correct, all sensors plugged in, everything looks good. What am I missing?

Originally Posted by ectech

Hello everyone! I'm a bit stumped with an issue that I am having and am reaching out for some possible expert advice. Here is what I have done so far and where I am at. I have a 98 4runner 3.4L 2WD 310,000 miles that I recently swapped heads due to a burnt valve as well as replaced the timing belt. After removing and reinstalling everything, I went to crank the 4runner and it would just crank but no start. At this point I removed the top timing belt cover, checked the timing, thought I was 180 degrees off due to the crank to cam turn ratio. I removed the belt lined the cam pulleys up with the timing marks, manually turned the crank, clockwise 5 full rotations to assure all marks stayed in line. At this point my crank is lined up with the 0 and confirmed TDC by removing plug #1 and manually checking with a long screw driver, the cam pulley marks are at 12 o clock, aligned with the given marks. After putting everything together, I try cranking again and it sounds as if the timing is off. It cranks but no start and if I give it a couple tries I get blow back out of the throttle body. This led me to believe that the intake and exhaust valves are not working together in time. I then thought that maybe I aligned the cams wrong by getting the cam marks mixed up, since we have 2 dots on the RH to align and 1 dot on the LH cam. I removed my valve covers to find that on the RH cam, the 2 dots align, rotated the engine 180 degrees to check the LH cam and the single dots align. Now I am looking at RH and LH cam pulley, aligned with their timing marks, both cam gears are positioned to where they both have the single dots aligned and my crank pulley is at 0 degrees TDC. I am scratching my head on this on. Does anyone have any suggestions on where to look next?
The only things that I've done outside of FSM instructions was replacing the knock sensors, knock sensor harness and soaking both ends of the fuel injectors in lucas injector cleaner, overnight. I had them standing up in a container half the night right side up and the other have upside down. I understand that soaking the injectors may have been ineffective for the most part but I thought why not... I have also used a multimeter to check the given FSM specs on the crankshaft sensor,cam shaft sensor, fuel injectors and coil packs.
I appreciate that there is a community out here to reach out to and would like to thank anyone in advance for their input.