3RZ TDC Timing Marks Not Lining Up

Very confused at the moment, I blew my head gasket the other day (as far as I can tell so far, hopefully not anything worse) but I’m working on tearing down the top end to pull the head and start looking into it, the problem I’m running into is that my timing marks aren’t lining up like every resource has shown me it should, according to what I’ve seen/read, when the Harmonic balancer is set at zero degrees cylinder one is at TDC and the dots on the back of the cam gears should line up in a straight line, my problem being that when my balancer mark is at 0 it’s not at the top of the stroke and the cam gears aren’t aligned, but when I have it set at like 20 it seems to be closer to the top and the dots align.

So my question is can I just treat the 20 as my 0 mark and go about my day of pulling the cams or is there a larger underlying issue causing this that will cause me problems down the road when I go to put it back together?

HB at 0:

HB at 20:

 

Maybe you have a sheared key on the balancer? Pull it off and take a look. Good luck with your headgasket job.

 

Don’t forget to put a valve cover bolt in that exhaust cam…. I agree regarding the balancer. If you remove the bolt you should be able to see if the key sheared… I recently replaced my head, you are in for a memorable experience

 

Wait….The picture w/ HB at zero, those dots appear to line up, looks right, don’t get hung up on chain marks. Don’t forget to remove the tensioner then zip tie the chain to intake sprocket. Stuff a bunch of rags in chain cavity to catch all the stuff you will drop in there

 

replace the harmonic balancer. The outer part that has the groves for the pulley and the timing mark is pressed on to the inner part with rubber in between.

 

I'm dealing with the exact same issue however on my balancer, There is a timing notch on the pulley, on the opposite (middle, between belts) edge in a different spot, and rotating to TDC, this center mark at 0 deg makes everything on the cams line up (dots), and I can verify at this spot, that the #1 piston is at the top of the stroke..

Maybe someone before me put the mark they were supposed to use (closest to the block) at 0 deg, and tore it down, then reassembled intake and exhaust cams to where dots line up, and it didn't run correctly, so the next mechanic that worked on it removed the head, seen #1 wasn't TDC, rotated crank to make it so, then reinstalled head and since the two cams were installed synched with each other, it'll never be true TDC top to bottom unless cams are removed and reset????

IF that makes any sense, but I attained this 3RZ 4runner that isn't at TDC on the mark everyone says it should be. And I find no information regarding the other mark I'm talking about opposite side of that harmonic balancer pulley (inside edge, in different location, about 20-30 degrees which is similar to the OPs statement.

 

Measure and adjust valve shims while you're in there.

 

How many times did you roll it around? It's possible that sooner or later it does line up.