I see alot of knock threads on here but I could not find an answer for this. I have an ‘88 pickup 3vze. A couple days ago I had a new tps and O2 sensor installed in order to pass smog (not sure if this has anything to do with it), but it had been running fine prior, just an idle issue which went away after the new tps. Today I drove the truck and it was running fine until I started to enter the freeway and a nasty rattle/knocking sound began under acceleration followed by very little power. I got off at the next exit and came to a stop light and as soon as i tried to accelerate again the engine shut down. After this I could not get it to start up again. After a tow, I had my dad try and start it while i was looking under the hood and it sounds like a knocking sound coming from the upper end of the engine. Most of the knocking threads I see everyone is able to start the engine but this one will just keep trying to turn over forever and wont start up. This truck had been sitting for 10+ years until a couple months ago. I put a new timing belt in prior to starting it up and was sure it was properly timed, but maybe not. Any ideas?

 

pull the distributor cap see if the rotor turns?

Sounds like something came apart on the timing belt

One of the gears /

Maybe the belt.

Good Luck!