Toyota Repair: 1991 3.0 v-6 runs rough, spark plug wires, head gaskets

Question
The motor runs poorly as if it has dropped a cylinder or 2 and the power is gone from the motor. I have had the head gaskets done by toyota about 30K ago. I checked and the ecm codes for a faulty knock sensor. What effect can a knock sensor have? I am in process of doing a compression test and will replace out the spark plug wires. Is the distributor a remote crank pu or normal type dist.? and could this be the problem?

Answer
The knock sensor would not affect driveability too much and it would not be the cause of an engine misfire but the misfire could cause a knock sensor signal that is out of the computer's parameters and will turn the light on, for instance if the engine is pinging or knocking or if the timing is incorrect. The compression test should be done first to make sure the engine is sound, if the compression is good then it may just be a matter of doing a tuneup, when the distributor has a problem the engine will normally not start at all.