Krash

My dad thinks I should start to do this stuff myself. Personally, Timing chain to me seems a lil bit difficult to do for a first timer. Plus the fact that I've never done it and He has never done it on import engines....

So opinions? Should I do it and If so what tools am I going to need, If not how much am I looking at paying someone to do it?

Personally I wanna pay someone, but I was the same way before I started to work on computers.

Paul H.

Personally, I would not attempt something like that especially if you are not mechanically inclined. I would do some maintainance like oil changes, shocks, spark plugs and other easy items. I do not trust myself to tear my engine apart. But that is me.

Krash

Well my dad thinks that its gonna be a piece of cake. All I have to do is buy the parts and beer. Not a bad trade-off when I was researching it today and the average cost of a timing chain replacement is around 1000$. He said he has done if before on big block chevy's etc. and after talking to him just a few mins ago I feel alright letting him do it. We're gonna put a new oil pump and water pump etc. on while were at it to hit everything with one shot. Hopefully the truck will last till then, as one of the groups postings I was reading on google said that I was running on borrowed time.

AJatx

I'll let you know how my 99 4Runner timing belt replacement goes today. It's not that difficult from what I've read and seen in the manual. You're not really taking apart the engine, just the front cover and pulleys.

The hardest part is probably breaking the main front pulley bolt loose.

It's highly suggested to replace the water pump at the same time since you're already there.

J

Krash

Yeah at the moment I'm pricing everything out. Hopefully I can last another month then we are going to replace everything waterpump, oil pump, chain, etc.. while we were at it. My dad thinks he can do it, so hopefully he can and if not I'll probably get a new engine.

AJatx

My bad, I thought it was the timing belt.

Yeah, the timing chain is a lot more involved with taking apart the engine. If your father has done it before, then I'm sure it won't be so bad with the 4Runner. I would highly suggest getting a factory shop manual in case you run get stuck or need reference.

Good luck!

J

wrongway

I just did timing chain on my 22r motor and it went fine.
If you decide to do it the main thing is to lay out bolts for each item you take off. There are alot of diff. sizes.
Bill

AJatx

wrong,
Good advice!


When I rebuilt an engine (rotary), I would use a muffin tray to hold nuts and bolts and a seperate container for the long bolts (tension bolts). You can get the nice parts organizers, but I did it ghetto style.

Also, get a nice sharpie so you can label the tray with bolts and nuts. Some bolts require torque sequences and I would label those by numbers as well.

J

Krash

muffin tray isn't ghetto, heh its a good idea! I dunno I'm gonna trust my Dad and let him and his buddy work on it with me supervising to do any b!**h work. I just got to buy parts and the beer.

Arnold

It's not too bad of a job. I used a piece of cardboard w/ a rough sketch of the timing cover to keep track of where all the bolts went. Poked some holes through it and put the bolts in as I took 'em off. Now that's ghetto.

Yoda

I assume you have the 22R or RE engine. You will notice that the timing cover is covered on top by the head, and on the bottom by the oil pan. We dropped the oil pan when we did ours, but it is difficult to do that with IFS front. There is also the hidden bolt that is under the big bolt on the front of the cam gear (hidden bolt is very front center of head, inside the openning for the chain, goes through the head into the chain cover. It usually is covered with a small pool of oil)

I would suggest getting the steel backed chain guides from DOA instead of the plastic OEM ones

Krash

Yeah the steal backed guides were on my shopping list. Sux though that they went from 65$ to 80$

david in germany

geting parts for my 22re the best place i have found with the best support is the parts dinosaur (ebay store) timing kits with steel guides about $50. here is his link.
http://www.stores.ebay.com/partsdinosaur
his name is bruce and will ship same day.
Good luck and in my opinion if you have the time and tools do it your self. if not have it done.
David

Krash

I'm gonna buy the tools, the ones i don't have (torque wrench). And I'm going to goto autozone or napa and see what timing kits they have there. My dad said he would pay for it to my surprise. I think he wants to do it just to give himself something to do. But after the timing chain is replaced and I know I have a solid engine bring on the mods.

jx94148

I paid a shop $700 to do mine 3 years ago. That was with plastic guides since I had no idea what the metal backed guides were all about back then. If the truck dosen't get totaled before its time to do it again i'll try it myself. That will be about 3 years from now though. Hopefully the synth oil will help the guides last longer.

Skydigger

Read these links first because there are a few tricks to it...

4crawler

and

4x4 wire

and then go for it! I've never done one but I'm doing mine this weekend. No special tools needed.

Go with a Japanese kit by Altrom/O.S.K. and definitely get the steel backed guides. Toyota stuff is awesome but they don't sell this stuff as a kit and it really adds up for all the OEM parts.

Good luck and wish me the same,

Warren

BTW. I haven't changed my sig yet but this is for my '86 4Runner

Krash

Heh good luck. Apparently it isn't that hard because me and dad did it its goin on about 6-7 months ago. This is an old thread dunno how it got brought back up, I got a e-mail saying that someone replied yesterday and no one had replied

Good luck, I boycotted pepboys over the whole deal but other than that it wasn't that difficult. I also had somewhere I had to be that day so dad did most of the work. Would reccomend getting the water pump and anything else while your at it. Might as well replace it before it needs replaced.

Also here is a thread of what mine looked like when I replaced it. https://www.yotatech.com/forums/show...&threadid=2518

Skydigger

That's funny. I didn't even check the date on the thread, just saw it on top of the list...


I tried following your instructions link but I guess it's dead. Why did it take you guys so long? What were the trouble issues?

Did you follow Toyota's recommendations and remove the head, front diff and oil pan?

I'm not going to do it that way so I hope it'll take me less time.

Regards,

Warren

Krash

it prolly took us a day taking it apart and getting it mostly back together. What took us so long was the fact that the parts stores we bought stuff from gave us the wrong stuff, therefore the reason for me boycotting pepboys. Also there was a bracket that we forgot or got rubbed off when cleaning it and didn't know where it went. The second day we got done pretty early and was just cleaning up and doing maintanence like plugs and wires, etc..

I would do a search on google for it and then goto the group tab at the top of google's results, if i remember right thats where I found it.

I said we finished about 4am.. I meant that to be I got home at 4pm.

joez

ha, i had to fish my timing guide pieces out of my oil pan . i heard them break on i-80, and she died in the parking lot at work. it was an easy job though, wasnt it. best thing i found to use for the bots was a clear plastic plano-tacklebox. i wrote with magic marker on the lid, and it could be kicked without losing parts.