Potential Gas Tank Sabotage - 2002 Prerunner Turns Over but Won't Start

No, sadly I haven't done anything, and think I am ready to throw in the towel. As I've stated several times in this thread, I think I can fix anything with this truck, if I'm told what needs to be fixed. However, my troubleshooting skills are pretty minimal. I just don't know what could be wrong, and how to determine what I need to fix. I haven't taken it anywhere yet, but am seriously contemplating it.

Let's say the valves are bad, due to the rust show in some pictures, what would I do to fix that? I'm tempted to just rebuild, or have the engine rebuilt, but since the truck just sits on my backyard driveway, it's been easy to do nothing.

 

I understand getting frustrated not knowing what to do - that is me with any job including wood - I hate wood...


Let's get back to basics here, to run an engine needs:
1) Air
2) Fuel
3) Spark
4) Compression

We need to verify these are all available, as you have some suspicions about the condition of the valves, a compression test in the first logical step.

1) Fully charged battery
2) Pull the fuel pump fuse/relay
3) Block the throttle wide open
4) Remove all spark plugs
5) Listen carefully as you crank the engine, try to give all cylinders the same amount of revolutions
6) Record the numbers

Around 140-180 is normal, note especially the difference between the lowest and highest, they should be within around 20%.

If one cylinder is very low pump a few squirts of engine oil in the spark plug hole and retest, if the reading improves a great deal it usually indicates worn rings/cylinder walls, it there is little or no improvement then usually the problem is with the valves.