Hey everyone!! Another newbie on the forums!!

I came into ownership of my 4Runner after my dad got a new company car, about two years ago. I have noticed now (for about a year) that there is an odd "offbeat rattle", it's not a constant tick tick tick like valvetrain nose. Most of the time it occurs in the afternoon when I am driving home from class, or on long drives, but not in the morning. Thinking that it was a ping from pre-ignition, I took the timing down from 10* BTDC to about 5* BTDC. The noise has seemed to subside somewhat (87 octane). I also noticed when I swapped out the distributor cap and rotor that there was a fair amount of freeplay in the distributor. (could wiggle the rotor back and forth about 1/8"-1/6"). The 4Runner has 202K on it and I've only had the waterpump, replaced in my posession, and I don't know what the original owner's maintenance routine was like. (my dad did buy it second hand from a friend @ 150K)
It needs a lot of work, so I'm debating on rebuilding the engine or swapping it for a new jegs... Back to the original question, should I try replacing the distributor? How long do they normally last on the 3VZE?

 

Thats alot of miles on a 3.0. is it a 5spd or auto? Not sure on the actual question im sure someones here has an idea but again lots of miles on that motor im sure more is yet to come soon. I would not sugest after it goes to rebuilt it. If you can do fab work and are comfortable with swaps I would do that. Theres tons of options out there. Im not sure what you mean by jegs

BTW welcome

 

I've heard that the 3.0's don't do so well after a while. It's an automatic (4spd with overdrive). I just get this odd rattle from what seems like the left side of the engine. I thought it was a loose flywheel, but after I adjusted the ignition timing, the noise seemed to stop (for a little bit). I can give as much info on the rig as you guys need. I guess my original question was that could the offbeat rattle be caused by a worn distributor, or is it just an old engine?