I rebuilt my brothers 22re in a 93 4x4 4-5 years ago. it only has around 20000 miles on the rebuild when he said it started missing and knocking. i listened to the knock and it sounded like valves rattling. thinking maybe one of the nuts came loose we pulled the valves cover and everything looked fine. we then removed the head to investigate further we found the head gasket burnt out between cylinders 1 and 2. obviously the head gasket blew but has anyone (outside of a diesel engine) herd of a head gasket blowing like that causing a knocking sound.

NEXT. when we pulled the head off the amount of build up on the top of the pistons was extremely excessive. at first thought it was because of bad fuel (local station known for it) but after looking at it closer (and finding out its still burning oil) it appears that 3 out of 4 sets of rings didnt seat. is this a correct assumption?

 

I have seen a piston skirt crack on my cousin's 22R-E, and the pistons rattle around in the cylinder. All due to some coolant from a bhg.......

Seriously though, it you think it was valves, you should check the valve lash. It's impossible to do now that it's apart, but even a few thousandths of an inch out of adjustment, and your rocker arms will sound like a nasty rod knock.

The oil burning could also be from the PCV system. How much oil was in the intake?

 

heres some pics

 

not sure how to get a pic of the block i posted it in another thread and now it wont let me load it here

 

My old 22re blew just like that between 3 and 4. Sounded terrible,and was hard to nurse back to work.