InternetRoadkill

I had to remove the cylinder head on my 22RE. Unfortunately, I neglected to mark the chain and the cam sprocket. The head is back on the engine, but I need to re-time the cam. This is what I did: I set crank to 0 degrees. Then, being careful to take all the slack from the timing chain, I positioned the cam sprocket with the dot straight up. Is this an acceptable method? My timing chain does not have any bright links that I can see, and I can't see the crank sprocket anyway since the timing cover was never removed. The FSM seems insistant on using the bright link method. Any comments?

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bodo

Make sure it's 0 degrees number 1 on tdc, not just 0 degrees. The tit on the cam at 12:00 and slip it on, then rotate the thing by hand. In theory if you do it like this you shouldn't have to worry about shinny links, a chain is a chain. Just curious why did you have to pull the head?

YotaJunky

I just did my timing chain last night. If you haven't removed your original chain, carefully remove it with the cam and crank sprockets and then count the number of links between the markers on the sprockets. If you don't want to fiddle around with the distributor, like I did, just make sure cylinder #1 is at TDC on the compression stroke, and then pop the dizzy in at 12 o'clock ( it'll spin counterclockwise about 35 degrees and point to #1). Even if you don't, you'll only be off by 180 degrees anyway, and it's just a matter of cranking the pulley another revolution and repeating.

I did that last night because I didn't set #1 at TDC on the compression stroke.

Troy

InternetRoadkill

Short answer, I had to pull the head to replace the head gasket.

The long answer is that the camshaft failed under mysterious circumstances after only 90 miles on it and left a mess on top of the head. I removed the head to check the oil passages. I wasn't able to find a definitive smoking gun, so I ended up installing a new cam and a new set of rockers after cleaning out the metal filings.

The damaged cam was installed correctly and had undergone the full break-in procedure as specified by the manufacturer, so I don't know what happened. It looks like it might have been a combination of little things. First, the ARP head studs are larger than the factory head bolts. On the 22RE, the cam lobes are lubricated by passing oil around one of the head bolts into the support blocks and then down thru the rocker shafts. It looks like the ARP studs may have restricted the oilflow somewhat. Second, there is some question about the surface hardness of the rocker faces and/or the camshaft lobes. After explaining the problem to the guys at LC engineering, they told me that some of the aftermarket cams and rockers have been known to have inferior surface hardness than the toyota factory parts. I replaced the rockers with factory units and replaced the cam with one of LC Engineerings offerings which they assured me was fully heat treated to toyota specs. I also went back to factory headbolts.

I ran out of daylight to finish up today, but tomorrow I'm going to fire it up and see what happens.

bodo

I've got an LC cam also, John in tech support is great. When you readjust your valves after breakin try 7 and 11 instead of 8 and 12. What cam did you use before?

InternetRoadkill

I didn't remove the timing cover, so I can't see the crank sprocket pip mark to set the chain either by counting links or by using the bright links.

As it turns out, the 0 degree mark on the crank pulley is actually spot on for #1 TDC, so setting the crank to 0 is trivial.

The distributor is easy to set. Just set the crank to 8 degrees BTC (make sure the valves on #1 are closed for compression). Then insert the distributor so that the rotor is pointing more or less at the #1 plug wire. Finally set the reluctor points to match the points on the outer ring. The engine will be in time within a couple of degrees when you fire it.

InternetRoadkill

I'll definitely second that the guys at LC have great tech support. (Thanks again john!)

The previous cam was an Erson 268/268, .436 lift (T268-A).


The new cam:

20R/22R - Stage 2 Camshaft (PN 1022036 )
4WD / Pre-Runner / Hot Street 2WD (1500-5500 rpm)
Modified Carb or Throttle Body & 1 1/2" Header

--------------- Intake Exhaust
Valve Lash ---- .008 .012
Valve Lift ----- 460" 460"
Advertised Duration -- 290° 290°
Duration @ .050" -- 240° 240°
Lobe Center ------ 102° 118°

John recommended this cam for the automatic tranny and the factory EFI. We'll see how it works. It's a bit hotter than the Erson unit.

all_terrain17

Am I the only one who finds this hilarious?

I know you prob didn't mean to say that but I think I've found my sig

crackerjack

Short answer " you've been there done that"
Long answer I think I'm going there and doing that

InternetRoadkill

Quick update: the new cam is in and running nicely. It's a lot quieter than the previous cam, and despite the longer duration, it seems to idle better too. We'll see if it holds up better than the last one.