OK so i rebuild my 3vze a month ago, everything has been running great no problems. But seeing as i my timing gun took a s%^& when i was tuning it and i had to time it by ear. I decided i would by a new gun to check it out and to my surprise i found the timing at 30 degrees btc. Normaly any engine i know of would be pinging like crazy timed that early, so i set it to what my new gun showed as 10 degrees. It ran like a bag of crap, no power like it was retarded severly. I should mention that i did put a jumper wire in the proper pin in the diagnostic plug while setting it up.

So i decided to put it back to where i had it before, tune the rest of the engine and it runs better then ever!? It still shows 30 degrees initial but no running problems at all no pinging hesitation etc.

Im not sure if anyone else has had the same issue but if so let me know, i hate having something not (right). I dont know if maybe the timing indicator can move or what but it would be nice to figure it out. Thanks, Mat

 

If you know toyotas go by sound. Gerneraly if it sounds good its good. If its not bouncin like a hooker on firday night then it sould be alright. I mean if you want it perfect get a gun that works but yea if you can't go by sound then you must not know yotas well. The 3.0's idle is about 700-800 i believe.

 

Harmonic balancer may be bad. Mine rotated on me and I was having the same problem timing it. Set the motor to TDC compression stroke and see where your mark is. That should tell the tale.