Trevor FNG

I have a question related to my current project right now which is restoring a manual 86 4runner with a 22re. It had a blown headgasket. My mechanic just finished the headgasket job, with a complete Yota headgasket kit, timing chain, etc. and let it run 20 minutes and then called me up to say the engine ran strong but there was a problem - water in the oil. His theory was that the truck sat over two winters with the hood not properly seated and that ice caused the block to crack, although he said there's no visual confirmation, just a hunch.

I searched the likelihood of a cracked 22re block in the threads and came up with the following: "never seen a 22re get cracked" "never heard of one cracking or read about one either" "22re block dont crack". This came from a thread with the same problem - recent headgasket job with water in the oil. Turned out to be the front cover (timing cover). Here was his story - "The guy before me installed a cheap timing chain, which loosened. I had it changed ong ago for a yota one. The front cover was scored deeply by the chain, but all seemed well. They replaced my front cover on a hunch and all seems good. Makes sense as the score marks were right at the main water port."

I'm going ahead with replacing the front cover as well (gone so far, why stop now) and will post a follow up, but I thought I'd share this because the idea of a cracked 22re block seems to come up so rarely, it'd probably be worth a seat in the archive here.

Any thoughts on my mechanic's theory?

Thanks, peace.

Trevor FNG

Some how I got this in the wrong forum. My apologies.