Help with 22RE after head gasket
 

Last week a local shop replaced the head gasket, timing chain on my '93 4WD truck. This was after the coolant was mixing into the oil. During this mixture I never overheated the engine to a boil over. The gauge would just go about 3/4. I stay very attentive to my gauges. Has 141,000 on it. After some research on the internet, I found this was not uncommon for this many miles. Upon repair the mechanic had the head resurfaced. This morning about 90 miles after repair a distinct tapping noise could be heard from the engine. He now says it appears to have spun a rod bearing and is working up an estimate. Very trustworthy mechanic and after 10 years myself in the auto service business I know things happen. I have owned it since new and keep it in A1 condition. Just need advice, find a used engine (and chance having the same prob in a few years) or have the lower end redone or rebuild entire thing ? Really felt good after initial repair. The truck hadn't run as well since it was new then this happenned. Hope all the info is here needed to advise. Thanks.


E.S. in Virginia

The problem is that the coolant tends to go to the bottom of the pan and gets pumped through the oiling system. You may not overheat, but you probably had some metal on metal action.

I can't point you to a good reman, but if you trust your mechanic you might talk with him about the labor and machine costs of a rebuild. A quality "kit" for an engine rebuild can be had from Ted at www.engnbldr.com.

Maybe some other people (or your mechanic) can talk to you about remanufactured motors and which brands they trust. Cost generally runs $1200-$1800 (for the motor after providing the old one as core)

This just happened to me...blown head gasket...does a bottom end rebuild usually follow the HG job? I had very little water in the oil.

I asked the same question on pirate once.. Water in the pan and we knew that it had been sucked up and pumped through. Guys there gave it a 50/50 chance of survival post HG. If you shut it down and didn't suck water into the oiling system, you should be fine.

delete

it must be my low grade of education, but i'm having a hard time understanding what your point is.....

Never mind I misread.

I had a timing chain cover get eaten up by the timing chain which lead to a lot of coolant in my oil, I'm replacing the timing chain with a dual one, but what do I need to do to get all that coolant out, and will the coolant in there hurt anything else? What else should I replace since all that coolant was in the oil?

thanks in advance

Mave