all_terrain17

College is coming in late August and i seem to be getting the dreaded timing chain rattle and the chain has some slack. Engine has 180k yet feels solid. So, should I go about replacing the chain the "right way" and pull the head? Or, simply take pull the cover off?

The idea of taking the head off of the 22RE scares me when I think of trying to remove the old exhaust manifold, or keep the wiring and vacuum lines in order. I have little mechanical experience aside from adjusting valves, but I do want to learn.

So what do you think? Do it the "right way" and pull the head, or just pull the cover off?

Thanks in advance.

ovrrdrive

I did mine the first time by just pulling the cover and oil pan and had a leak in the gasket and had to do it again the right way by pulling the pan and head.

It has been done a thousand times by people on these forums by not pulling the head but after you spend as much time as it takes to get in there to the chain, it really isn't that much more time to pull the head too.

Chances are that at 180k the head gasket is a time bomb as well. I say do yourself a favor and do it all at once.

Take plenty of high res pics of all the vacuum lines before you start any work at all, and label everything to where you disconnect it with either tape or a paint pen and you'll be fine. I probably took 200 pictures at 248x1560 with my camera and I can't tell you how many times I had to reference them.

all_terrain17

Thanks for the reply, hopefully ill be ordering the engnbldr timing kit today. Other than that, I think Im gonna go get started tearing the truck down right now.

Btw, any tiips on getting the old exhaust manifold off?

Any other opinions?

Thanks

ovrrdrive

Buy yourself a can of PB Blaster and soak all the bolts in it for a few hours. Overnight if you can. The stuff works wonders ad is available at Walmart or almost any automotive store.

EWAYota

What makes taking the head off vs. just taking the timing cover off, the "right" way?

How does that make it better in the end? Or is it just to replace other gaskets and what-not at the same time?

I'm just curious because you can't put the timing chain back on until the head is back on, so if you don't need to take it off, why do it?

In his case, I understand with the mileage and possibly head gasket issues, but if the head gasket wasn't questionable at all, why go thru the work of pulling it all off?

ovrrdrive

Well, technically its the "right" way because that's the way they say to do it in the factory service manual.

In my opinion, it was the right way to do it because we had a really hard time lining the cover up on the pins when we put it back on with the head still mounted and not only did we bugger the head gasket up to the point that I would have either had an oil leak or a blown head gasket in a month, I also had water in the oil when I was done with the job and had to do it all again.

After I did finally get it mounted on, I ended up with an oil leak due to a bad gasket seal around the water jacket. Which was no surprise because we put the cover on and moved it around for 5 minutes trying to get the pins to drop in.

When I took it back apart, again, I decided to get a new timing cover and remove the head for installation to make sure I got it on right this time. With the head off installing the cover was a no brainer; it just clicked right on.

My time in this instance was too valuable to risk another bad seal so I did it the "right" way the last time and I am the proud owner of a truck that runs again.

As I said, there are a bunch of people that have done it with the head on and it worked fine. For me, I couldn't risk it so I did it the factory service manual last time. Minus dropping the front diff of course. I undid the motor mounts and jacked up the motor to get the pan off.

So as a direct answer to your question, it makes it easier because you can press the timing cover straight on without pinning it under the head and forcing it.

Also, with 180k on his engine, I'd think it would be good to renew all the gasket seals on the motor including the head gasket to keep it running good.

spirtlanimilbus

its a whole heluva lot easier to put the cover on first.

in my experience building 22r/re's ive found that its alot easier to set the head on after the timing cover is on. i use a zip tie to hold the chain on the gear and do the oil pan last so i can see the crankshaft sprocket hasnt jumped any teeth on the chain. its almost impossible for the chain to drop off the gear because of the little guide on the timing cover. ive seen alot of them with broken guides because people decide to tear an engine down before removing the crank pulley and then try to spin the bolt which spins the chain arround the sproket, which finnaly shears the guide slap off the cover. ive done it both ways but the way i prefer is do the head after the cover. i simply use a zip tie to hold tension and then set it down and pull the chain up after i torque the head halfway.

like ovrrdrive said , ive had that same problem with the cover getting caught on the head gasket and it creasing enough to make it a real pain to get a good seal.and when the oil pan is in there it makes it even more bitchy.i always drop the pan in that circumstance, black permatex can only do so much.and gunk in the oil pan does wonders on prepping a crank up for the machine shop... i cant seem to get that through to some people though....

all_terrain17

Thanks for the replies and advice. I've decided to pull the head, and Ill be posting another thread of my progress so far. Thanks again.

Flash319

I did 2 timing chains by pulling the head. The last one I did leaving the head on. I am kicking myself in the ass for the first 2 that I did. If you pull the head it is WAY MORE WORK. You can get the same result leaving the head on if you take your time and drop the front of the oil pan. I will never pull the head again unless head needs work.

EWAYota

Ok, when I did mine, I put the head on first, then put the chain on, then put the timing cover on. If I put the timing cover on first then try and get the chain up to the cam sprocket, I couldn't get any slack from the chain. It just wouldn't budge. I could get slack from pulling up on the chain with the timing cover off, but not on.

So, I'd put the head on, then put the chain on and run it from sprocket to sprocket, that way I could get the slack by pushing in the chain tensioner.
Once that was on, I'd put the crank pulley bolt in, rotate the crank till the woodward key is roughly at 10 oclock, so that it would line up with the oil pump. Then it was just a matter of wiggiling it on and it was good. Then I would just bolt the cover on, then crank it to TDC again and continue on with the rest of the job.