I received a 1985 Toyota pickup with a partially disassembled 22r in it. The head had been swapped and the entire timing assemblage had been removed in order to do so. The previous owner informed me that the engine was out of time as they had replaced the cam and not really paid attention to where they had oriented it when they installed it and they knew the engine was not at top dead center. This is partially why they ended up not completing the repair. My question is, how do I rotate the cam into the correct position and rotate the crank top top dead center without causing the pistons and valves to hit. Is there any way to do this or do I have to pull the head to make sure that doesn’t happen. I have all of the parts but the entire front of the engine has been disassembled.

 

You should be able to loosen the cam bearing caps and turn both the crank and cam carefully with hand tools, feeling for resistance.
That should permit the valve timing to be set.

Must say though, the timing cover should have been set before the head went on.

Might be wise to take the head off and start over to see what is really going on.

 

If you are sure the cyl head is installed correctly then it is really easy. First look at the crankshaft Key. Rotate that key to 3 o'clock slowly making sure you do not feel any resistance. This will roll the 4 pistons down half way. After you do that you can move the cam to where it is needed by installing the cam gear to see where the timing dot is and move it almost to exactly 12 o'clock position. Once that is done you can bring the crank key back up. Install the timing pieces and double check. Other than that, personally, I'd pull the head and make sure there hasn't been a mistake that has already taken place