Okay... I know it's been a year. Without going into detail suffice it to say things fell apart for a while and I haven't been able to continue improving my little 165 any. Most recently out of nowhere she started losing coolant and oil rapidly. My first thought was possibly the headgasket, so I gathered together a small pile of parts and got started. I found also coolant was pouring down the front of the engine from the water pump area, which annoyed me since that pump was only 1 year old.
I replaced the pump and had a Hell of a time getting the old gasket off as it turned to rock in that time. I found one of the bolt holes on the pump housing completely stripped so I ended up heli-coiling it. Flushed out the coolant and oil (oil was very green...which I don't understand since I used royal purple oil and Toyota red coolant), replaced the headgasket - which was in amazing condition for 22 years old, switched out to ARP headstuds and buttoned everything back together. And gutted the A/C since it had too much of a leak for me to even try repairing for use.
I haven't had a chance to test if I fixed everything because now there's a new problem:
I'm not getting any spark. The physical timing is correct; lined up the crank and cams before tightening the timing belt down and putting the covers on. I'm definitely getting fuel, it's easy enough to smell after a short cranking session. But nothing's getting to the plugs. Nothing's getting to the distributor either.
I checked out the coil per BGB and it passed the tests. Also tested the igniter per BGB and it seems fine. As far as I can tell the coil isn't receiving power from its plug. No fuses are burnt out and all the relays appear to work. If I directly apply power to the coil the relays in the engine bay will all click like they normally do.
She's throwing code 35 at me which I can't understand. Never had that code prior to the partial teardown, the turbo pressure sensor is plugged in and it passes voltage tests. Even cleaned the plugs out just to be sure it wasn't dirt getting in the way. I don't think this would completely disable spark, would it?
I replaced the engine to strut tower ground strap as it was about as flexible as an eggshell but still no love from the GTE. I need help guys, I'm stumped
* - also weird note; when she cranks I can see the boost gauge flutter up to 1PSI rather than drawing vacuum like I'm used to seeing.