andykrow

Hey all,

The saga began a little over a year ago when I bought my truck, an 88 runner with a 22re and 200k miles. This truck needed the timing chain done shown by a loud rattle upon deceleration. The PO really wanted to sell it and was willing to do the chain for me for the cost of parts. At the time I didn't know one was supposed to make sure no timing guide pieces made it into the pan... After he did it she sure was noisy! Seemed almost like a diesel, or maybe an exhaust leak. I couldn't remember if she sounded like that before the timing was done, but I thought oh well, another noisy Toyota. It's my fifth 22re and they've all been loud. Anyway it had tons of power and the noise was gone as soon as I got off idle, so I went on my merry way.

Now about a month ago a new noise developed. Sort of a plastic snapping sound, intermittent at idle and strong and consistent only between 1700-2000 rpm. After 2000 the sound was non existent. I did some research to see what it could be, and by now I knew about guide pieces. I called the PO and to my dismay he hadnt dropped the pan. Now, mind you, I hadn't discovered anyone who actually the pieces cause a problem, just theories if you will.

I'm here to tell you they are true! Those pieces will F you up!

I pulled the cover and the guides were still there, but the drivers side one seemed really flexible. I put a call into Ted (engnbldr) and he assured me low oil flow would lead to tensioner failure, so I went ahead and ordered his complete front kit with steel guides.

So this past weekend I tore into it and the drivers side guide was completely gone! Got to her just in time it seems. I planned on doing it right this time so I dropped the pan. FYI with a 3" body lift you can just jack the motor and pull off the steering stabilizer to make room. Still a PITA tho... Anyway the bottom of the pan was full of about two guide's worth of pieces, and this stuff SINKS in oil! So it all sits down there by the strainer, which also had all sorts of tiny pieces wedged in the screen.

Got her cleaned up and buttoned up and now she's quiet. Errr mostly quiet like a 22re should be.

Moral of the story: In just about one year the plastic guide pieces caused (or nearly caused) timIng chain failure! Drop that pan! Also, it's worth noting the timing chain sound was different each time it went bad. First time it was like marbles in a can and only on decel. Second time was a plastic snapping sound. Same on accel or decel, load or no load.

Oh and one more shout out to Ted. He really knows his stuff.

Now it's off to the Maze district of Canyonlands. And to think I was considering putting this timing job off until after the trip.... Sheesh.

dropzone

iTrader: (6)

that's nothing. When I was stationed in Alaska I had an '84 X-cab. Engine started making a horrendous knock, thought I was screwed....took it in (no place to work on the truck) they were laughing when they had me look at the oilpan:
the PO had replaced a broken timing chain but didn't bother to remove some chunks of the old chain

andykrow

Geez some people are lazy. Taking off the pan doesn't really add much to this job. Taking the pan off was like an hour on top of 8 for everything else.

Honestly I was kind of hoping to find something cool in the pan but there were just plastic chunks.