Hilux808

I have a 91' 4Runner with the 22RE and for those of you familiar with the oil pump on this engine you know that the upper most bolt that holds the oil pump on the timing chain cover requires a thread sealant on it, according to my manual it also requires 18 ft.Ibs of torque. IT also happens to be the shortest of the five bolts.

Well last night after replacing the seal that came with my ROCK oil pump with a OEM seal from Toyota (7mm updated front main seal - part # 90311-45014) I ran into a BIG problem. After torquing the other 4 bolts (2 bottom @ 9 ft.Ibs, 2 middle longest bolts @ 14 ft.Ibs) I started on the top one, applied some sealant, hand started the bolt till I couldn't no more and grabbed my torque wrench, set to 18 ft.Ibs. Well the threads in my ROCK timing chain cover couldn't handle it and I never got to 18 ft.ibs. I started free spinning shortly after. Sure enough the threads were damaged. I took the pump off and I ran a tap (I think it's a 8x1.25) through it to clean it out.

I then put the pump back on and switched the bolts. The two bottom ones right above the oil pan are slightly longer then the upper most shortest bolt that requires the thread sealant. I switched one of those with the shortest bolt.

Has anyone done this and will it be a problem?? I read a post on here last night and that person said that if you use a bolt that's too long in the upper most hole you risk hitting the timing chain tensioner and causing a lot more problems. This is what I don't need.

For now all bolts are torqued to 9ft.Ibs. I'm sure that the upper most bolt will not handle 18 ft.Ibs again and I don't want to try. It seems like a lot of torque for that bolt going in to aluminum, especially since it's short too. Or are ROCK timing chain covers just junk quality??

All I wanted to do was to change the ROCK front seal since it only lasted 2 years (the OEM seal lasted 18 years @ 215K, just my luck). Now I have more problems then that. I thought of a heli-coil or tapping it for a bigger bolt, or torquejust run it how it is??

I'm not sure what would be a good fix, any ideas???

4x4climber

IIRC You do not want to use a longer bolt because you will hit the timing chain tensioner. And I think that bolt is supposed to be torqued to 18ftlbs. Rock timing covers are junk.. Esp compared to OEM. I torqued mine to 14, then barely gave it an extra soft nudge to move it a wee bit more and was done. I do em all like that and have never had a problem.

As for your threads... I personally would buy the next size up in standard sizes. (SHOULD BE BARELY BIGGER) in diameter and a very slightly different thread. It will be better than just retapping the threads. You will be tapping the thread part thru some fresh metal.

To do this you will need alot of patience and since you will be takin alotta metal out. you want to lube it ALOT and often. And, you are gonna want to go in a little, out n clean it off. in a little, out n clean it off... like a million times so you make sure it is done just right. then... slap it on and torque it to 14ft-18ft lbs after you rtv it up.

Hilux808

Well I figured it out and I finally got my truck up and running again with no leaks. Apparently the bolts were mixed up, I tried to use one of the bottom (Shortest) bolts instead of the middle length one in the top most hole for my oil pump housing. As you can see in the picture below the middle length bolt is the one that goes in the top most hole and is also the one that requires thread sealant.

I'm not sure how these bolts got mixed up but the shortest bolt that I tried to crank on ended up pulling the first 2 threads out of the timing chain cover. I gently used a 8mm x 1.25 tap to clean it out and only on the first few threads of the timing chain cover. This top most bolt also happens to require the most torque out of all the bolts. My factory service manual says 18 ft. Ibs. I had wondered why Toyota wanted so much torque on this small bolt. I then started to look at all 5 bolts and the configuration. The two middle holes in the pump housing require the longest bolts, this can't be confused with the shorter bolts because the other bolts will not thread in the holes. Then I looked at the two bottom holes and the top most hole. The two shortest bolts threaded in fine with enough length to secure the bottom portion of the pump housing. That left the middle bolt to go in the top most hole. It has more threads to grab in the pump housing because of it's length so I then applied Permatex thread sealant to the first few threads and then torqued the bolts. Instead of 18 ft. Ibs. I torqued the top bolt and two long bolts to 13. 5 ft. Ibs. (the 2 long bolts Toyota wants 14 ft. Ibs on them). The two bottom bolts I torqued to factory spec at 9 ft. Ibs.

I still can't figure out how my bolts got mixed up cause I labeled them as I took them out, one of the shorter bolts had thread sealant on it so I was running my truck like this for 2 years since I changed out my cylinder head. I either mixed them up back then when I installed a new timing chain cover and oil pump or it got mixed up at one of the shops I took my truck to in the past. Either way they're back in the right configuration and and it's not leaking after a 100+ miles.



When I was searching the forums for my problem I ran across these two links and was not aware of the groove that the front seal cuts in to the crank pulley. Because my leak was originally caused by my front main seal I decided to get a seal from the dealer in hopes that I won't have to deal with this for a long time again. I got the updated 7mm 22RE seal (# 90311-45014 - about $16) and installed it just below the chamfer inside the oil pump bore so this new seal will ride on a different spot on the crank pulley. You can see in the pictures below that the seal is in a lower position inside the pump bore then where the original 11mm seal would be seated.

https://www.yotatech.com/forums/f114...81-2wd-126295/

http://home.earthlink.net/~twopapa/toytech.htm#seal



I then took some steel wool to my crank pulley to knock off any dirt and grime so the new seal would have a clean surface to ride on. Removed old o-ring and cleaned RTV from surfaces of timing chain cover and pump housing where they will meet up.





New seal installed, notice how the seal sits slightly below the opening of the pump bore.



I then packed my pump with some Mobil 1 grease to help create oil pressure upon start up.



I applied a thin layer of grease to the lip of the seal and to the area of the crank pulley that the seal will ride on. The I applied a thin layer of high temp RTV to the oil pump o-ring seal and bolted everything back on.



So far so good and no leaks. If you're in the middle of a timing chain job or your seal is already leaking I would recommend getting the OEM 7mm seal from the dealership and doing this. It will be more expensive but my ROCK seal only lasted 2 years. It is possible it was riding in the groove on the crank pulley that the original seal created but I don't know. I refuse to have any fluid leaks on my truck so it's irritating to have to replace this seal after only 2 years. Hopefully this Toyota seal will last longer.