I am new to the forum but have been reading threads on here for several years. Recently had problem with 85 Toyota pickup 22re valve seat falling. Head was damaged along with top of no. 1 piston. I purchased a new head and decided to take a closer look at the bottom end while the engine was apart. No. 3 connecting rod bearing was bad, and appears as crankshaft is damaged. I will be replacing all the main bearings and connecting rod bearings. Is it best to just buy a new crankshaft or have the original one repolished? Also, should I replace all four pistons and rings, or just the damaged one? I’m trying not to disturb any more of the engine then I have to. This pickup is also a work pickup that rarely sees the highway, so I’m trying to get it back going without putting a ton a money into it.

 

If you pulling the crank put new pistons and rings in. You already have a new head and are pulling the crank. So send the crank and rods out to be checked and sized for new bearings. Find a machine shop to flush & bore your block so you know what size pistons to order. Most machine shops know the places to outsource work like cranks and stuff if you dont know one.

 

I'm really interested in what you guys have to say about this topic too. I have an 85 also which I've swapped two 22re's out of because of knocking bad cranks/rod bearings. I've been tossing the idea around of doing complete rebuilds of them but I think I would go the route of buying new parts instead of rebuilding. But anyway, the first time I just tried to band-aid the knocking by putting new connecting rod bearings in and that didn't really help, so I'm glad you're not thinking of making that mistake NMyers10.

Please offer your 2cents guys!

 

Precision measurements are essential to determine the condition of cylinder bores and crank journals before deciding what repair/replacements are necessary.

Reconditioning of a sound, uncorroded, genuine Toyota head casting is preferable to any new aftermarket head, with the possible exception of the Very expensive Spanish made ones.

All others I have examined are Chinese junk. Some not even having the oil dams that provide cam lobe lubrication cast properly.

I wouldn't trust Chinese metallurgy to exhaust valves that must operate at continuous red heat either.

A polish or regrind of your existing crank should be as good as the purchase of any other reworked crank, if your choice of machine shops is good.

Replacement of only part of rod, or main bearing shells, or of one or two pistons and rings is foolish.

Pistons, rings, rod and main shells are very inexpensive, and the work to change all is insignificantly more than that to change part of any of them.,

 

Hard to be sure from the images, but I don't think I see the Toyota OEM marks on the valve faces.

I would be interested to know if the head that dropped a valve seat was OEM.

 

Just rebuild the engine yourself if you have the room and basic tools. Sourcing good heads is possible but like said be ware of cheap chicom junk. Find a local machine shop when your ready to rebuild. Take them your engine and have them either rebuild it for you with good OEM parts. If no one is local to supply good parts several good online Toyota specialists are online such as LCE and 22RE performance. Rebuilding these older motors is fairly simple but takes some time and some space to stay organized. Otherwise its not a bad evening project, few hours here and there, once you have all the parts.

 

Thanks for all the help and advise. I have ended up buying new parts pistons, rings, bearings, crankshaft, etc. Just got it all put back together last night and am to the point of starting it up. Didn’t want to start it after working on it all weekend and risk making a dumb mistake because I was tired and want to look it all over one more time to double check everything. My biggest concern now is making sure that oil pump is primed. That was the last thing I did as I left the distributor unplugged and removed the efi fuse and cranked the engine over several times for 10-20 seconds. I also put Vaseline around the oil pump gears when I had it apart. How do I know if it is primed? Any further advise or anything I’m missing before I try to fired this thing up?

 

You're good with the oil pump at this point. I have packed them with greese and started them dry and probably somehow done it in between as well. I have never had an oil pump I installed die on me.

Edit: I usually replace them out of habit if I do the timing chain. I must have 3-4 in spec used 22re oil pumps laying around. Along with a few water pumps and various other stuff. Crap now I want to go inventory my hoarding habit.