bulldawg901

I have done some searching on this but I can't seem to find exactly what is happening to mine.

History:
'94 Pickup 22RE w/ 181k miles.
I replaced my timing chain, guides, water pump, etc. at 170k.
I have adjusted the valves numerous times.

I just recently opened up the valve cover to do another valve adjustment because everything was getting noisy from the top and something weird from the bottom. Got all the valves adjusted to spec. and put everything back together. While i was in there I visually inspected the timing chain and guides and all seemed to be intact and well.

Start the motor and it is quiet as hell (relatively, it is still a 22re).......for a minute. Once it came down off of warm up idle the valve noise for the most part returned and i was still hearing a weird noise from under the car...towards the front...at the low end of the timing chain cover. Using the stethoscope method I couldn't actually pin point the location.

The noise at the bottom is def. more towards the front and it seems to match engine rpms.

My concern/question (finally). I know these are noisy engines and i'm not overly concerned with the valve chatter, but what about the loud timing chain from the bottom end. If the guides are in place and all is relatively new, what could be causing a noise from the bottom end? I have had and heard timing chain slap before (which is why i replaced it in the first place at 170k) but this is different, it doesn't vary and you can't hear any amplification with the stethoscope.

Any suggestions? Thanks.

Badger62811

OK here's my $.02....

In 2009, my timing chain gave out. Lucky for me, I was at idle in my driveway, and it didn't do any damage to anything else. The down side, I had just started a new job and didn't have the time to fix it. Nor did I have the space. At the time, I was living out in the sticks on a gravel road during harvest time. Not exactly the cleanest conditions. But anyway.... I loaded it up on a trailer and took it to my dad to have him fix it.

He got it all back together, and it was running great, then he noticed he had some extra bolts or something stupid like that. So, he had to take it back apart and fix it. After that, he noticed a "knock." Not the usual 22re rattle. He thought it was just a noisy valve.

HOWEVER... to me it sounds like it's coming from the lower front of the engine. Around the oil pan. It stays in tune with RPMs and really hasn't changed over the last 2 years and 15,000ish miles.

I'm pretty sure it's a rod....

This isn't my only problem... I have a pretty strong gut feeling my tranny is gonna go. And I know once I get that fixed, my engine's gonna blow. Which is OK... since I wanna do a diesel swap anyway

If you get it figured out, please let me know. I'd love to know what to expect.

bulldawg901

wouldn't a bad rod have more of a reoccuring "knock" noise? I'm not sure.

My noise is very constant and sounds faintly like what you would assume a chain over a sprocket sounds like. I'm just curious if this is normal or if there i something I need to fix.

wjhart3

check the hydraulic timing chain tensionioner

bulldawg901

I replaced that when i did the timing chain work at 170k. Is there a way to check that without taking the whole front of the block apart again?

wjhart3

cant really check without ripping timing cover off..the bolts have to be torqued to like 10 ft lbs.. but if you overtighten the bolts on it the pressure on it sometimes wont let it work like it should,, i replaced mine and used a torque wrench and still mine is noisy when the motor is at idle-oil pressure is lower,,and the oil is thinner..soon as you engine speed increases the noise quiets down,, called enginebldr they said not much you can do.. that was 35k miles ago and truck runs fine but little noisy at times, i also used the heavy duty chain guides from lc engineering which they say are noisy as well

bulldawg901

Thanks that sounds reassuring because mine is def. the loudest at idle speed after it warms up. when I rev the engine it tapers off slightly but you can still hear it. I typically torque everything down to manu. specs so I think its probably torqued correctly.

I guess it's just another noise to add to the list with these engines

wjhart3

you can try a thicker oil , that helped with mine, also try a genuine toyota filter, they say they have a valve inside the filter which increases the pressure at idle so its quieter,,i tried one and it was definetly quieter than a fram,

bulldawg901

yea i always use the toyota filters. I am currently running 10w30 w/ about a quart of lucas oil stuff substituted (not sure of the name, but it looks like honey going in).

what oil are you running?

wjhart3

i go with the toyota recomended 10w 30,, usually quaker state or whatever on sale and a fram filter,,i dont put too many miles on it-only has 99 k,,i just put any 10w30 in it and change it regularly,,at work they use fram filters and my mack truck has 1.5 million miles on it ,mechanics at work say the synthetic is better which i believe as well but cant get around the price difference,guess im too cheap like my kids say i am but regular oil leaves money for beer

Badger62811

OK so yours sounds different than mine. Mine doesn't taper off with higher RPM, and thicker oil doesn't make a difference. I have to run 20-50 in the summer to keep my oil pressure half decent.

bulldawg901

Been thinking about this some more. I pulled my valve cover again last night to double check some things.

Chain Guides are still in place as previously stated and the chain has a little slack on the drivers side (1/3 - Tooth) which i believe is normal.

So assuming that my only issue is that the tensioner is either bad or overtorqued (or just noisy). How urgent is it that I tear into this thing and see whats up? Or should I just let it ride until I smash through some guides?

Also, with the guides being in place....where is the contact that is making the noise?

bulldawg901

I posted a thread a few days ago about my timing chain, and the theory is that I have a faulty tensionaer either due to low oil pressure due to a previous guide clogging the oil pickup, I over torqued the tensioner, or the tensioner is just a pos.

The timing chain, etc. was replaced by me 10k ago but for what ever reason the tensioner is acting up. so I would like some advice on how far to take this job. I need to replace my clutch, etc. and i also have an exhaust leak on cyl. 4 at the manifold.

I would like to start by fixing the tensioner and I would like to drop the oil pan to see if the pick up is clogged (i've never done this and to my knowledge neither did the PO).

Since I am going to do the clutch as well, I figured it would be just as easy to pull the engine out. Then I would have access to the oil pan, timing cover (easily) and slapping on the clutch assembly would be easy at this point also.

Where i am stuck is I don't want to spend a ton of money on this right now because overall the engine runs great (minus the chain noise). to my knowledge the HG has never been replaced. 1994 22RE w/ 180,000 miles. Never abused, engine runs great and doesn't consume any fluids. I only drive the truck probably 10,000 miles a year, so if the HG has another 50k in it then I don't want to hassle with tearing down the block at this point.

I figure the timing chain parts would cost less than a hundo. With a new clutch and exhaust leak fixed, the truck would be pretty solid....assuming no HG issues, etc? thoughts?

waskillywabbit

iTrader: (-1)

Merged your threads. MUCH easier to get advice with history of the issue and other comments.

No need to pull the motor. Loosen up the motor mounts and raise the motor to pull the oil pan. I'd leave the HG alone IMO.

:wabbit2:

bulldawg901

Sweet, Thanks for the help.

How hard is it to get in and replace the clutch on these trucks? That was the second reason for thinking about pulling motor.

fissure333

i'm having the same noise in the same spot. i'm thinking that i've got a piece of crud blocking the oiler for the tensioner. it's basically fine until i let off the rpm's to shift then i get a little rattle sounding like it's coming from the chain. i think i'm going to pull off the front cover and blow some air into the oiler hole to see if that clears it up. i might also pull the pan to access the sump and clean it out also. what a PITA just to get rid of a little noise.