great-info-thanks

I sure appreciate your insight on this.

1) I discovered I or someone had overfilled the front transfer case, and by at least half a quart. I think making that fluid level normal has taken away one of the noises that I thought was a bearing or frozen rod. I will drive the car again tomorrow and see if this continues to be the case. Man do I ever hope so.

2) I took off the valve cover again and did your great recommendation, looking at the cam lobes and I didn't find any marks of wear (thankfully.)

3) I have ordered from toyota their stock oil filter as those filters keep oil up in parts of the engine for more oil in the engine when starting.

4) Other than the very noticable tappit clicking sound on top, I hear the most significant unusual noise best when i am closest to the catalytic converter (which is fairly new.) I have a small crack in my exhaust manifold. I don't know if that means anything.

5) I still feel metal hitting metal when I put my finger on the nuts holding down the valve cover, but not when I touch the valve cover.

cman1

iTrader: (1)

make sure you are not overtightening the valve cover. you should get them finger tight then a 1/4 to 1/2 turn more,thats all. the valve cover is very close to the rocker rail.the book says only 9 inch pounds of torque.

great-info-thanks

Is this normal?

While facing the engine compartment, as I was turning the crankshaft bolt to inspect the circumferance of the cam lobes; I noticed:

1) The timing chain was looser on the drivers side (I'm facing the car) than the passenger side, not at all loose enough to fall off however. I think the timing chain guides look fine.

2) At one point as the engine was turned, the timing chain on that looser side got nice and tight. I don't notice if that was when the engine was top dead center or what. I keep on turning the crankshaft using a ratchet and socket and it got looser again temporarily and then tighter as before.

3) Thanks cman1. I actually only tightened the nuts on the valve cover hand tight.

cman1

iTrader: (1)

thats how it is,the tensioner works on oil pressure,when the engine is running ,tensioner tightens up.

great-info-thanks

Great to know.

lectric80

You mentioned an exhaust leak, that could be the tappit sound you hear. In fact when I first heard my noise that's what I thought it was since it seemed like it got a bit quieter when the engine warmed up and everything expanded. Before you go tearing your engine apart it would be worth it to at least replace the manifold and see if the noise is still there.

I will say that when I looked for the damaged lobe, I didn't find it. In fact I pulled my top end apart on the assumption that it was the problem, and only once the rockers were off did I find the flat spots on the cam and worn rockers. It is also possible that one or more of your rockers has a bad spot on the pad and it is causing your tapping. However, until you rule out the exhaust manifold as the source of the noise, and assuming you have looked at the underside of the valve cover for any damage, I wouldn't pull it apart. In order to check the rockers for bad spots the entire head must come off, so rule out that exhaust leak first.

great_info_thanks

lectric80, thank you for your advice. I had problems logging in which delayed my response.

The 'tappit' noise gets louder after the engine warms up in my 87 22re 4Runner though I think it's a good bet that the noise I hear through the Catalytic Converter is exhaust manifold leak related.

It's just that I think there could be two separate things going on, the tappit related noise and the hole in the exhaust manifold noise.

I still can feel something hitting metal after the engine is warmed up and I put my finger on the (hot) intake manifold cover nuts. (Those are the 4 nuts that screw onto the 4 studs that come up off of the head.)

lectric80

Start with the exhaust manifold, then if the noise is still there you can consider removing the head. I just hate to recommend you pull the head when it could be the cracked exhaust.

great_info_thanks

Good advice though I think I'm going to give the beast yet another one or two valve adjustments but this time when the engine is hot.

lectric80

I know when mine did this it didn't matter how I did the adjustment. I had it extra tight with the engine hot and it still did it. So, give it a shot and see what happens, I can only tell you what I saw with mine and it doesn't guarantee that you have the same issue.

great_info_thanks

Wow lectric80, the valve adjustment gap being extra tight didn't quiet it down, that's depressing and I know from experieince all the work and money that's involved in working this problem out.

Say, I'm hearing about "shims" being on the part of the rocker arm that the cam lobes slide across.

Is that true? How often do they break (if they even exist)?

lectric80

Mine had nothing that would be considered a shim except the spacers on the shafts themselves that align the rockers with the valves. The part that rides on the cam is a steel pad, and the two flat spotted lobes had damaged pads on the rockers. I didn't see my damage until I pulled the rockers off, but I did run it for like 2-3k miles before I finally broke down and pulled it apart. It could easily have started with one of those pads, or the cam, I just don't have any way of knowing.

great_info_thanks

I guess at some point I'm just going to have to bite the bullet and take things apart.

Dielawn

I have a similar sound, but only when it's in drive. I can't hear it just running in park. Doesn't sound exhaust manifold-y to me, but then again I have a 22re. Bad injectors maybe?

great_info_thanks

Hello,

Sorry to say that my noises occurred whether the transmission was engaged or in nuetral.

I am real grateful to all the fine, intelligent folks who posted information and suggestions during my depressing time of need with my 87 22re. I posted a sizeable message about what the fix was a while back on the forum somewhere.

Well my 8th valve adjustment (all done by myself unfortunately) was the charm. This engine was rebuilt about 30,000 miles ago and a problem it has is that the valves can get out of adjustment with too much stress.

I adjusted while the engine was cold, .0007 x 0011 and made sure the gap was GREAT on each one. Also maybe I got the engine at TDC better too.

The clicking for me is coming back a bit but it's not a problem yet. If I start the car at an angle facing upwards there can be more clicking than usual for a while.

I ran the full gauntlet, I looked for exhaust leaks, time chain guide problems, timing chain tensioner, main bearing(s) out, camshaft problems and more, and all a long I was just not doing a good enough job doing a valve adjustment.

Best wishes to you my friend, sounds like it's your turn...

Dielawn

Dang! That's alot of gaskets! I'll re adjust my valves again if I don't see anything on my exhaust manifold. I hope that's what it is though....give me an excuse to buy a header.

great_info_thanks

Admittedly I haven't looked for valve cover gasket leaks lately but didn't see anything obvious back then.

One of the changes I made for the good adjustment was that the gaps were tight. The feeler gauge slid through the gap but it was tight. I made sure all were that way. I took the exactness of the gap a lot more seriously then than ever and may have gotten lucky on at least some of them.

I also have the frustration of telling people that my trouble along was that I didn't do the proper repair job to start out with, but as you know, when you fix something that's been such a problem, it's such a good feeling.

The good folks on this forum were a great relief in my time of need. Youtube videoclips helped too.

skebe22RTE

nobody answered you at first, but you did and experienced so much along the way, you're an expert at it, and thank you VERY much for all your postings! i'm almost eager to adjust my valves for the 4th time this weekend if i have a chance, i'll keep you guys posted in what happened! once again, thanks lectric for ALL the input you gave!

lectric80

I haven't been around as much, so I just saw your message, sorry about that. Thanks for the kudos, now if I could only get around to getting mine back up and running. And now's a good time to bring up a bit of a warning:

My pickup made it just over a year after I replaced the cam, about 30-35k more miles, and then threw #4 through the side of the block. Having gone through most of the replacement motor, as well as examining what went wrong with mine, I can safely say that in hindsight the cam issue probably should have been resolved with a stock cam. Based on what I've seen so far, my engine (specifically the rod bolts) couldn't handle the extra pressure from the RV cam, even though it was a fairly mild cam. I was right around 180-190k when I did this cam swap, and it was necessary to replace the cam, but although it looked like a strong engine, adding extra power does take a toll on a well worn engine. Take my advice, if you have 150+k miles on your engine, use a stock grind cam or you may find your engine's weak spot.

But, that year of running was a bunch of extra fun. The "new" engine I have came from a good friend who pulled it from his 87 pickup. His carb was dumping fuel, made the engine really dirty (seriously at 10k miles it looked like it had 200k), and built up enough carbon to prevent the valves from closing. I plan to swap my head onto this engine, and run it until it explodes, then put a new rebuilt engine in. I hate to do it this way, but money is tight and I have things I'd rather park in my garage. Hopefully have it back up and running in a few weeks, as I can pick up the gaskets and such I need.

skebe22RTE

ahhh yes, it has been over a year since you last posted, so you're forgiven haha, jus kiddin... but it's all good man, at least you responded, A LOT of guys on here don't respond to the things i say or ask... so you're good...

it makes sense that you put a fresh cam and rockers that you blow the bottom half, it is now the weakest link... it's just like when you fix a coolant leak from the upper radiator hose, some odd miles later, you can easily blow the lower hose because now that's the weakest link... seen it a million times! LOL

if i were you, i think i'd do that too, just take your buddies bottom half and put your head on it and just run it... it should be safe, i think it'll last a bit since it only had 10k miles on it? just make sure you don't get TOO cheap LOL, i did that and i'm having a WORLD of a mess with problems now... almost feel like starting new! haha, bought my friends engine from him since he crashed his 86, which only had 70k miles on it.... got laze, REALLY lazy and had the engine sitting almost 5 years before i decided to get off my butt and install it... didn't do anything to it, just put new chain guides and a rebuilt turbo on it... few months later blew the head gasket... well, i don't want to bore you with the specifics as to what happened but, yah, don't get too cheap hahaha

again, thanks for all the info! didn't have a chance to do the valves yet, but once i do it, i'll keep you posted, thanks!