22r started leaking oil from the top of the timing chain cover, knew this "hidden" bolt to be a common cause. After tearing into it i found that it had either been stripped or cross threaded because you can tighten and tighten it and it just spins, not tightening down.

Here the solutions ive considered

slowly drilling on through and grinding the bottom flat and using a longer bolt with a nut washer and rubber grommet on the bottom. Doing this i wouldn't have to take the timing chain cover off and go through that hassle.

or.. just replacing to cover, so i figured the above to worth a shot for something at this point ill be replacing anyway.

Any help/recommendations? Has this happened to anyone else?

 

I would not drill through the timing cover and do the nut thing. If it was me, I would do it right and replace the timing cover, might as well do the chain as well. Then I would also take the head off and put a new Head Gasket on and seal that joint between the top of the timing cover and head properly. It's a 22re, it can be done in a good day.

Or if I was just hoping to make it a little while longer, I would put a helicoil and put in a slightly larger bolt.

Just remember, sometimes it becomes too expensive to be cheap...

 

Its a 22r. See the slightly good news/but also annoying news is that the motor was just recently rebuilt. The timing chain, the head gasket, all new. And i can tell that they defiantly are, even though i bought this truck about two months ago. i get what your saying by doing it right and replacing the timing chain cover, which regardless i will do asap! it would be an insult to the truck and toyota in general if i didn't haha. but for now the weather is terrible and i need it back on the road to get back and forth from work. So as a temporary fix, do you see this working? I feel as though regardless of rather it will work or not, its worth a try seeing as how the only thing i will be drilling into is the part thats already defective and will be replaced anyhow. Its just annoying that whoever rebuilt the thing stripped that out and didn't fix it right to start with, i suppose seeing as how it wasn't an issue till later on down the road (driven it the past 2 months and this just happened this week), maybe it held enough to take some time to back its way out and they had no clue it had happened, but at the same time it sketches me out and i wish i had the time/money/alternate transportation to tear it all back apart and rebuild it again myself for good measure.

 

drilling in that area is risky, i'll second the helicoil idea.

worst case, just blast the area in front that leaks with carb cleaner and an old toothbrush, then pack it with rtv, might slow the leak down for a couple of weeks, until you get decent weather to work on it.

 

If it was recently rebuilt and it's already leaking oil and you're finding cross threaded bolts, imagine what else might be wrong. I'd pop the head off, replace/repair the timing cover correctly, install a new Toyota head gasket and bolt the head back down after inspecting everything. But that's just me. Like someone said earlier, it's a good day project, maybe a weekend if you are new.