For the past month I've been slowly rebuilding my 22re for my 4runner, and today, as I was putting the new head on, the hole on the timing cover is just slightly off-line with the hole on the front of the head. The head and timing cover are both aftermarket, and I'm stumped on what to do about this

 

Wonder if it may be due to the slightly different heads, timing covers and engine blocks released in the 85-86 range?

Does your engine have a single row or double row timing chain?

 

single row. i think it was due to the ebay timing cover. i drilled out the head to make the hole a lil bigger and i got it to work though.

 

I have this similar problem. After expanding the hole on the head to match the hole on the top bolt timing cover, did you have any oil leak after putting all the parts together and run the engine?