My '87 4x4 with a 22R seems to have lots of piston slap when it is cold. Every winter it seems to get a little louder and takes a little more warm up time for the ticking to stop. Is this a good indicator of how much longer the bearings are going to last or will it just keep doing that for many more years?

 

piston slap and rod knock are two different things. rod knocks are normally apparent at higher speeds. piston slap is when the piston tips side to side in its bore. you could have good bearings and have piston slap. when its cold, before first start, put some oil in each cylinder. if the noise is gone for a couple seconds on startup then suspect piston slap. if not, then rod knock (bearings). for rod knock, short out each cylinder and see if it goes quiet. that will be the bad rod bearing. if not then suspect valvetrain.

 

A little bit of piston slap below 40 degrees F is normal.....even for a brand new engine straight from Toyota. As I have mentioned many times, Toyota used sloppy tolerances in this motor. Sloppy tolerances are the hidden secret of a long lasting engine.

By the way, what weight oil are you currently using?

 

A bad wrist pin can do that as well and tend to represent a rod knock but the end result is the same .

 

I made a small mistake by saying bearings when what I meant was engine wear in general. It usually happens when the engine is cold, usually the outside temp is a lot higher than 40*. I am using 10w30 oil. It also seems to tick a little when I have been driving a while, let it sit for a few minutes and start it again. It gets quiet again after a few minutes of driving.

The reason I am concerned now is because I am getting a small list of things that need to be fixed, such as oil leaks and the clutch, and I am wondering if I should just fix them or wait a while and make a rebuild project out of it.

 

Ticking could just be valve lash and when the motor gets nice and warm the heat/expansion brings it to tolerence , they all do that to some degree when cold , as long as they quiet down on warm up your ok , if you have one that is coming and going when warm then it probably needs adjusting , if your going to tear into it I would wait and just go through it all like you said