connorp

Hey Y’all, I have this 99 Tacoma, bought it without knowing much at first, but it has what I believe is a JDM engine in it as it’s a 3rz with distributor, previous owner made it work somehow by pulling signals from the distributor for the coil packs. Just the background of this truck so i don’t have a great feeling about the engine lol.

Anyway other day the fan clutch /water pump went out on a road trip truck overheated, pulled over after noticing loss of power going up hill on the highway, towed it home, replaced water pump and fan clutch and belts, truck idles perfectly fine no smoke or anything no misfire but has this very weird rattling noise and a big loss of power, feels like i’m driving a tractor chugging along, safe to say haven’t driven it since.

Only code I have is P0340, cam shaft position sensor and it seems like that signal is being pulled from the distributor through pin 3 and 4. The conversion job the previous owner did was very shotty and so we re did the connections and put a new distributor connector on with the 3 and 4 going to the same cables as the old conversion previous owner did but that didn’t fix it? Purchased a new distributor as the old ones oring leaked into the distributor and we believed that could of messed it up, Tested out pins 3 and 4 as FSM says and resistance checks out so safe to say the brand distributor is fine

Obviously that isn’t related to whatever the sound is i’m about to attach with a video, still trying to figure out the very random non rythmic rattle, it’s not anything rattling on the outside of the engine i’ve looked everywhere it sounds like it’s coming from the block and to the rear almost. Oil change showed nothing but just a lil bit of glitter like usual, no coolant in the oil or anything no big chunks nothing stuck to magnetic drain plug. Compression is 130psi throughout all 4

Just need to find a whole new engine? Tear it apart and figure it out? Potentially just needs a new head? (When i took the valve cover off the lobes looked pretty messed up, I can upload pictures) What’s the best plan to get it back just driving, broke college student.