PLEASE HELP Engine Runs in Neutral and Park, BOGS HEAVY IN GEAR

Good afternoon 4Runners,

I have been rebuilding my 1994 4Runner with 3.0, auto trans with 4x4. I have got timing down to 10TDC mark with engine idle at 800rpm while diagnostic ports jumped, I have a small hissing noise coming from cylinder 2's fuel injector (i doubt this could cause my issue but i don't know for sure that's why I am mentioning it), and I have done EGR delete.. AKA I have completely removed the EGR valve and everything along with it and plugged off the three ports where they used to reside along with vacuum lines that led to EGR and related parts. I have heard this will not effect your engines performance as long as it is done right, again, could be wrong which is why I am mentioning it. The BVSV also does not have ANY vacuum hoses going to it, I plugged them both off because the PO broke off both stems and left nothing to attach to. The engine runs great in neutral and park, I can get into the truck and step on the gas and the engine will rev without hesitation, however, once I throw it in gear to try to get it to move under its own power, I have ZERO throttle response and the engine feels like it is about to die, once I throw it back into neutral it runs fine again. This leads me to believe it is a transmission related issue such as lacking transmission fluid or a torque converter problem but there aren't any odd noises coming from the transmission. I did have the entire engine out and disassembled along with the torque converter. The temp sensor to 4WD auto in the sensor block where the BVSV is also is not plugged in, neither is the knock sensor (PO is responsible for both of those issues) and I do not yet have the 10,000ohm resistor on the EGR connector either (which fools the ECU to thinking the EGR is operating just fine and wont throw a code, but I don't believe again that this could be a cause of my problem).

ANY help at all is extremely welcomed, criticize me, tell me I've done something wrong, I'm an idiot, ETC I don't care as long as it helps lead to this thing finally running and driving. Please don't assume I have done ANYTHING correctly this is my first attempt at rebuilding one of these motors and I have been following mixed advise from many different sources along the way. If you have a question about how I did something or if I did something I will answer it to the best of my ability. I have been at this point for far to long and need to get it done!

Thanks in advance for your knowledge,
-RR

 

Sounds like a torque converter problem to me but I am not an expert on those, only owned manual Toyotas

 

@Kyle11863 I was hoping that wouldn't be the case.. I did some research on the symptoms of a bad TC but nothing mentions loss of throttle response just loss of acceleration, which to me means engine runs fine while driving but you don't pick up speed while pushing the gas... I could be wrong though, hoping for someone who's "been there done that" hopefully to come around and help out! Thanks for the response though!