jska

Hey all,

For the past few weeks I've noticed that my 94' 22RE was making a little bit of extra noise when started up for the first few seconds. I feared it was the timing chain on its way out.

I bought the truck at 99K and the PO said that he had just replaced the timing chain, but did it in his own shop, and had no way to prove it. The truck is at 116K now.

Anyways -- popped the valve cover off (needed an adjustment anyways) and what I found is confusing me:



Both timing chain guides are fully intact, and the chain is pretty snug. However, there are the characteristic 'tracks' in the head. What I don't understand is that the tracks are BEHIND the chain guide. How could the chain leave tracks without first breaking through the drivers side guide? The tracks aren't deep, maybe half a millimeter.

My only thought is that these tracks are from the original timing chain that may have been replaced a little late, but I figured oil would have covered the tracks up after 15K+ miles. Anyone have any thoughts?

If the chain is fine... I'm still wondering what my slightly noisy startup is... Perhaps I'll make a video and post it...

snobdds

The tracks are from the first timing chain failure. Hopefully he dropped the oil pan to get all the plastic pieces out of the oil strainer.

What type of noise are you getting? Is it a rattle or something else.

If it's a rattle, your timing chain tensioner may not be getting enough oil pressure at start up to take out the slack in the chain. Once the oil pressure is up, the tensioner takes the slack out. This could be caused by plastic in the stainer, from the old timing chain, plugging things up.

wescx005

Related question, I was going to pop off my valve cover as well to check things out. I dont have a noise but truck has 245K miles on it and timing chain was done back around 130 K. I don't remember if a metal or plastic guide was put in there so thats the other reason I wanted to check things out. I was going to take plenty of pics and a movie of what I see and wanted some feed back from you guys. Anything specific I should be looking for while i have the cover off ?

snobdds

The biggest thing is to make sure the guides are both there. Then check to see how much slack is in the chain. If there is a bunch of slack, then your chain is streached and it's just a matter of time before the chain starts slapping around.

Also check the water pump, make sure the shaft has no play in it. If it has some play, it's time for a overhaul - Timing chain, water pump, Head Gasket, seals,etc...

jska

The noise is hard to describe. It's not a rattle like a marble in a tin trash can. It's just noisier for a few seconds at startup. It's most noticeable on cold starts. I'll try to take a video and post it.

If there is, by chance, plastic in the oil pan clogging things up -- am I safe to drive the truck? If I leave this AS IS for awhile, what could happen?

My oil pressure gauge has always read ZERO, but I've assumed it's just a bad sender, a bad connection, or a bad gauge, because I doubt I could have driven 17,000 miles with no oil pressure without something going wrong.

Thanks for your help!

abecedarian

Would you describe the noise like a small flag blowing in wind?

Utah4Runner86

iTrader: (1)

Sounds kind of like an old Volkswagon diesel for a few seconds, less likely to do it on a warm start? I've got the same sound, it comes and goes. I've played with filters with anti-drainback valves, I've played with oil weights, it doesn't ever go away. I assume it's the timing chain tensioner, and one of these days I might do something about it...

Fm900

Could be a rod knock

87-4runner

It's a 9 year old thread.

Blueman

Hopefully the OP will circle back to let us all know how things turned out -- helpful for others and the village knowledge.

scope103

That would be the way to do it, but I don't plan to hold my breath. jska hasn't posted on this site since 7-24-2012.

211

This happened to me.
It was not evident until I tore the timing cover off but the hydraulic tensioner (opposite the guide you show in the picture) had worn a groove through the block.
If you look at a new tensioner, the wear block should be solid. Mine wore a groove about the depth of the chain, basically to the point the tensioner's piston ran out of stroke.

My guess is for the whole 250k miles that tensioner was never changed.

Edit~ didnt realize how old the OP's post was. Ugh

jska

You should have held your breath! Funny enough, I just came back to the site because I bought another Toyota Pickup last fall. Lucked out and found my login info. This thread was from a completely different, much rustier truck that I owned almost a decade ago. Wow, time flies.

Well, I ended up living with that noise for a few months and eventually sold the truck to a mechanic with better ability than me at the time. Ended up buying a 89' VW Vanagon and living in it for a few semesters (funny there's a VW reference in this thread, too). Now that I've reconsumed myself with all things 3rd gen pickups/22RE, thinking back about that truck with a decade more experience under my belt, I bet the PO rolled back the odometer and it actually had much higher mileage on it than reported.

Anyways, I'm back on the site since it's such an excellent resource and I'll do better at following up this time and helping grow the collective knowledge-base. If anyone wants to hop into my thread on my overheating issue and give me your thoughts, that would be great -- hah.