toyodabro

Hey gang. I searched the site here far and wide to try to figure out the best place to post this. I think this area's going to work but I apologize if I missed the mark entirely. Also, I have searched the site here and google as well to no avail. I think the question I have is a little too wordy to throw in a search string. Here it goes...

I'm doing a head swap on my '95 pickup with the 22RE in it. Head is coming next week and all of the other parts have already arrived. Very excited to bring the beast back to life. With that being said, I have a TDC question for when I throw the new head on. When reading about adjusting the valves on LC engineering's website, they remind you to first set the engine at TDC, adjust the first sets of valves, and then rotate the crank another 360 degrees to adjust the other sets of valves. Before I take my old head off, I'm going to set the engine at the first TDC "interval" I arrive at (if that makes any sense). Then pull the head and begin the process of the swap. My question is this: How will I know that the cam on my new head has been set to the same TDC "interval" as the engine so the stroke lines up. I want to make sure the wrong valves aren't opening when the shouldn't be. I really hope the way I explained this makes sense so I apologize if I totally botched it. Also apologize if there's already a thread about this and I missed it thus wasting everyone's time. Thanks in advance!

scope103

You don't. And you don't care.

First, when you remove the old head, you "should" pull off the cam sprocket, leaving the chain on the sprocket (zip ties help avoid accidents). Then when you install the new head, you rotate the cam so that it fits into the cam sprocket (still on the chain), and everything is the same.

But what if I'm too late, you've already removed the old head, and you pulled the cam sprocket out of the chain? As I think you've figured out, there are two TDCs for every turn of the cam. Both TDCs are the same (#1 piston is at the top of its stroke) AS FAR AS THE BOTTOM END IS CONCERNED. To reinstall the chain, you need to set the crank at TDC (shaft key on top, as the timing cover with the timing marks is now removed), line up the bright link with the timing mark on the bottom, line up the other bright link with the mark on the cam sprocket.

This explains it better than I can: http://web.archive.org/web/201210231.../8timingch.pdf

toyodabro

But now, what if I'm also removing the timing assembly because I'm throwing a new one of those on as well. Will I just set the engine at TDC as you described but fully remove the timing chain sprockets from the crank and cam? Thanks for the response, I greatly appreciate it.

toyodabro

Also, the new timing set I've ordered from Mell-Gear features a chain that has uniform-colored links. No bright one to speak of. Is this going to be an issue? Could I just mark off the one that will be the timing link? Again, thanks for the advice.

gsp4life

There are two bright links on an oem chain and they are exactly opposite each other. Yes, you can just mark them yourself, bright links only serve a purpose once while setting up timing.

You want one bright link at 6 o'clock on the crank gear and the other one at noon on the cam gear. The gears only fit one way due to a keyway and dowel, so as long as the crankshaft keyway and camshaft dowel both point straight up, you're good to go.

On a related note, I recommend using high-temp thread sealant on the chain tensioner bolts and torquing them to no more than 9 ft/lbs. This helps prevent the tensioner arm from sticking, which would cause an occasional loss of chain tension.