Thanks for all the replies, guys! (Hey, that rhymed....
)
There are many, many things I'd rather do, also....and NONE of them have anything to do with a vehicle.
But, I can't complain really. This whole thing happened in a very fortuitous way. I mean, aside from the eyeball freezing wind the past couple days (thanks for the sentiment Kyle), the circumstances could have been a lot more challenging. I broke down at a place where I know everyone (for almost 15yrs), so the vehicle was safe and no inconvenience to anyone. The parts store was a 2min walk. The fellow that towed it yesterday has his shop a mile from my house and will let me work on it there....albeit out on the grass. (The shop's only so big for paying jobs). And the fellow, his son, and co-worker are all friend's who'll lend me advice and tools as necessary.
The son and I had a look at it once it was towed to the shop, and since he has an extra cab and has done everything that could be done to a 22RE his troubleshooting skills are much more honed. The motor is not building enough compression...if any at all....to fire the cylinders. It was way too cold and windy (plus little daylight left) to pull the valve cover and look at things real well, so I'm not sure what all's going on, yet.....as in how it happened, IF that's what's happened. I won't be able to do anything until next week. But, Greg (the son) said I could pull the rocker rail off so that all the valves close shut and run a compression test to determine if any valves are bent. He said even if the timing chain did skip (which is seeming very likely) it doesn't mean any valves are bent. I may have gotten lucky. Makes sense....I recall a thread here fairly recently where a guy's chain broke yet no valves bent. We'll see. Plus, since the v-cover will be off as well as the rocker rail.....if no valves are bent.....I can do the timing chain (the whole front end, actually) and replace the valve stem seals all at the same time while leaving the head and bottom end alone.
Speaking of the bottom end, here's some good news. I don't know if any of you all know about or remember that I had started a thread a little while back where I was concerned about blow by and the rings on this thing. Greg point-blank told me that if the rings were bad enough to create blow-by it WOULD get smoke and I would NOT get the compression readings I got. Soooo, I don't HAVE to do the rings....which I was my original intention when I did the timing chain this spring. My PCV valves is probably just not shutting well even though it appears to be okay. In the event the valve/s are bent I might, though.....plus head work and front end and anything else that looks in need of taking care of. We'll see.
Anyway, to answer some questions...
Drew, I don't hear any noise or even feel any grinding when I turn the crank by hand. There's no play in the crank, either. I did notice a noise once or twice when I turned the motor with the key, but it seems to be more towards the top end. Not sure if it was just fuel partially igniting.
I didn't notice that any teeth were broken on the cam gear, but I wasn't really looking closely or even for that when I had the cover off the other day. I was just looking to see if the timing chain was still in one piece. If I were to recall on what I remember seeing, I'd say no, though. If there was enough slack in the chain, however, it could still jump with necessarily taking any out in the process. I really am suspicious of the tensioner due to the aformentioned intermittent rattling. I know it's not the valves as adjusted them this past summer.
I'll take note of the distributor and cam gear condition and positioning when I get it all apart next week. The plugs are practically new and gapped properly. Not sure if they're fouled. Haven't looked.
And, yes, the crank turns very easily by hand but the motor cranks slowly with the key.
Thanks again. See y'all later.
