Audrienne

After hours and hours of forum reading and a few attempts at tracking down the "tick" in my motor, I decided to put together my own post of my "journey."

First a little recent history:

June 2 New water pump and radiator (original had pinhole leak, so might as well throw a new one in there while the old one was out) as 30 mins into trip to FL the pump started dribbling coolant - changed in Advance Auto parking lot - UGH. Listened to intermittent and inconsistent tick thru duration of trip to FL and back.

June 11 Clutch overheated on trip bk home (hills of Atlanta area + camper = not good) and slipped outta 4th, then 3rd...limped truck to hotel, spent the night, headed home the next morning with a cool clutch and made it bk with no issues (4-5 hrs later). Yes, a new clutch is in the plans...but I think it might be more work than we can handle ourselves as u have to remove the tranny out from under the truck, if I understand my FSM correctly...my hubby is a big strong guy, and frankly there just isn't much room under my truck for both him and a dropped tranny...but I'll look more into that later. And no, the camper wasn't too heavy, well under weight specs for my truck to pull...and no, the tongue weight wasn't too heavy, well under specs as well. And no, we will not be pulling that camper behind my truck EVER again. LOL

July 3 Stethoscope on motor indicated that "tick" was loudest at water pump - so pulled "new" water pump off, gave the impellor (?) a spin and it kinda "squeaked." Bk to Advance, another new pump (lifetime warranty - gave it a spin in the store and it seemed fine) and gasket, put the thing bk on, filled up the coolant (of course) and STILL ticking....still loudest at water pump (via stethoscope - if u don't have one, GO GET ONE - they are so much better than the "flat screw driver to the ear" method - trust me!).

July 4 My brother-in-law says "change the exhaust manifold gaskets" (no ticking at manifold cold or hot, but we were willing to give it a shot)...so bk to Advance for a new set of manifold gaskets (6 of those boogers)...and after a LOT of liquid wrench, some blood, sweat and a few tears (mine, of course), we discovered a small leak at the big gasket against the head at #4, and the gaskets at the bottom of the manifold (into the pipes) looked very tired. Still no resolution..."tick" remains unchanged. (But hey - no exhaust leaks whatsoever now!)

July 6 Stethoscope on truck again....still ticking at pump - still lacking in consistency. Water bypass pipe (FSM term) immediately behind water pump on passenger side has ticking. Timing chain cover has ticking. However - ticking at water pump is still the loudest of all locations. Additionally - this entire time, there has been no discernable ticking heard on the motor/engine or any other parts attached immediately to the motor other than the timing chain cover, so I think at this point it is relatively safe to say that my valves and all associated parts are fine...at least I hope they are.

July 7 Still running thru forum posts (feels like I have been on yotatech all week now...wait - I have!), as well as youtube vids on how to change timing chain/dampers (guides)/sprockets etc. Some say u don't have to remove the head, some say u don't have to remove the oil pan. I think we're gonna follow the FSM, step by step, removing both cuz the last thing I want is some new sound or symptom caused by our own novice/amateur attempt at a shortcut.

So, here's the plan at this point - change timing chain and any/all associated parts. youtube has some fantastic vids on how to do this (with and without shortcuts) as well as other tips for various part removal associated with this sort of repair. Previous yotatech posts got me connected to various youtube vids and then I kinda went nuts. There are a lot of 22R, 22RE vids on youtube - good vids with lots of info on all sorts of repairs as well as how to handle certain situations if u don't have the SSTs (Special Service Tools)...and no, I don't have them!

I have a sneaking suspicion that one or both of my guides (FSM calls them "chain dampers") are busted based on what I have read here and what I have seen on youtube. The sound just doesn't seem loud enough to me (and hubby) to indicate that the chain is grinding thru the cover - yet. Additionally, I have no idea if the PO (I got the truck Sept 2016) ever had the chain (and associated parts) replaced. I will post more once we get into the repair and let y'all know what we find and if it resolves my issue. Feel free to offer suggestions if u feel inclined! I might be able to snap a few pics of the process if we run into something we haven't seen in the youtube videos.

L5wolvesf

Sound travels in interesting ways on an engine. Other possibilities could be. Water pump impeller is ticking against something it is attached to. Timing chain is right behind the pump.. Valve out of adjustment.

Audrienne

Partly into dismantle of all parts associated with changing the timing chain. Water pump is off...and inspected...looks to be ok and spins smoothly. After the other water pump failure, I am leery of something going wrong there as well! Thanks for the advice, L5, will continue tearing into this thing and hopefully get the "tick" resolved! We'll inspect anything and everything that we can (valves, etc) as we disassemble! Heading bk outside with the FSM (to remove the parts we aren't yet familiar with dismantling). Thanks for taking the time to post!

Audrienne

Well, pouring down rain- so grabbing some sweet tea and sharing with y'all our findings - driver's side timing chain guide/damper is in PIECES at bottom of cover. There is a little visible wear on the side of the cover where the chain has been slapping or grinding on it, but at this point it doesn't seem to have ground thru. We have the valve cover off, but not the head (yet) as the rain (torrential) ran us inside (yep, true shadetree mechanics at work here). So far, the rocker arm assembly (?) and all associated parts look fantastic, no wear according to hubby. Once we get the head off, we'll look at the rest of it to be sure there isn't any weird wear and such. Like I have said in previous posts, my hubby knows much more than I, and also knows all the technical terms for what we're doing...I just kinda wing it! Once we get the head off, we can get the timing chain cover off and see just what kinda damage the chain did...but as I didn't have water in my oil or oil in my water, we might be ok with just replacing all the parts and not the cover! Sidenote: hubby wants to desmog it while we have half the truck disassembled, so I will be wandering around the forum for a bit while this rain plays out!

L5wolvesf

Have you done a compression test? Nothing posted suggests the need to pull the head.

I've had several t/c covers fixed by just welding the gouge vs. replacing the cover.

Audrienne

Haven't done a compression test...not sure if my husband thinks it is necessary...will pick his brain on that one. From what we have read in the FSM, you have to pull the head (and drop the oil pan) to get the timing chain cover off of the front...a youtube vid said that was because Toyota built the cover in such a way that it is essentially wedged between the top of the head and the bottom of the oil pan (UGH). I hadn't thought about welding the gouge, that seems like a viable solution! Fortunately, the grooves that the chain ate into the driver's side wall of the cover weren't that deep at all, so we're cleaning everything up at this point and will begin the install this morning, luckily with a metal backed guide/bushing on the driver's side of the chain, new passenger guide, new chain and sprockets as well. Hubby did say that there is little to no wear on motor overall and that it looks really good (pistons, valves, rocker arm assembly, cam, etc) Thanks again for the input and I'll try to throw some pics up when we're done!

very_mechanical

Dunno how far you've gotten but you definitely do not have to pull the head. I did mine and didn't pull the head, and I'm usually one to just follow established procedure. There is a hidden bolt that you'll have to find. There is plenty of info on that in existing threads. I did drop the oil pan because I was worried about all the guide bits that had fallen down in there. I probably didn't have to, though, and it was kinda a drag since I had to also partially drop the front differential.

deaven

There are multiple causes of valve train ticking, too, and this might sound like it's at the pump through a stethoscope - see https://www.yotatech.com/forums/f2/w.../#post52480312