how can you tell the difference between a 1979-84 22re block and a 1985-95 22re block?

I bought a 90 4runner with a 22re recently, and now im rebuilding the engine. everything that i had to buy were all 79-84 22r parts like the water pump, etc. because when i bought the 85-95 water pump, and gasket sets, it all didnt line up on the engine. it was like it fit but it was just a little off when lining everything up. does this mean that i have a 1984 22re? i thought 22re's came into production from 1985 and up?

the guy i bought the 4runner from is the original owner and never had the engine rebuilt or changed. I know that 1990 is a crossover year but i dont understand why it would have a 1984 22re block on it..??? anyone have any answers??

 

There was a recent discussion of the differences between the older blocks and the newer under a thread titled "timing chain length." This photo offers one way to identify a newer block:



That is a photo of the driver's side (lh drive) of the engine.

There are other things about the two different blocks, many mentioned in that thread.

A 1990 vehicle should not have an old style block in it and I seriously doubt if it came from the factory with one.

 

90 is not a crossover year for the block. That would have been 84 when they went injected. I thought the only time the engine block changed was when they did away with the double row timing chain and that was even before 84. Your 90 block should be the same as late 80;s block. The gasket must have been wrong????

 

some cool info here: http://home.earthlink.net/~twopapa/info-2xr.htm

 

The change in 1985 included both 22R and 22RE engines and did not go from two row to single row timing chains -- that was earlier. The change with the 85s was a reduction in deck height by about .2" accompanied by different pistons, head, timing cover, oil pump, timing chain, and maybe some other things I can't remember. Earlier engines had a single row 96 link chain. Later are 94 link chain.

 

Thanks for the responses. The head has the round ports instead of the pear shaped ones.

i guess its an 84, but the thing that confuses me is that the guy i bought the 4runner from is the original owner and he has never changed anything on the motor. He's an 80 year old japanese man, and he kept all the service records from 1990 and he gave all the paperwork to me. i was looking it over and he only had the toyota dealer service this vehicle. he has never did a head gasket, timing chain, or any other work to the motor besides regular servicing. i bought the 4runner about 6 months ago with only 101,000 miles on it. before i bought the 4runner, the old guy hadnt driven it for 2 years, except for moving it in and out of his driveway. How could an 84 block end up in a 1990 4runner 22re?

 

logically speaking, there is no way an 84 block / head should be in a 90 chassis unless it was changed out.