vermontoyota

did a search- looks like the guides go pretty quick! My drivers side guide is broken- passenger side is intact. I have not noticed serious noise from the chain, but upon inspection is has has some wear on the side of the case- nothing serious or deep enough to measure, like .0001".

There is some slack, way more than I'd like. I can move the chain from being pressed against the side in at least 3/4". My truck has only 72,000 miles on it. I have the valve cover off to fix something else and lack the skills or time to quickly do a guide replacement (i am graduating this weekend and then start work shortly thereafter). How long do I have before the chain snaps?

ps- looks like it is in no danger of jumping a tooth.

abecedarian

More than likely, the chain will wear the cover down before it snaps. How long that will take is not something set in stone anywhere. It could be 500 miles or 10,000 miles.

Now, myself having had a chain wear through the timing cover and knowing what it could do to the engine if that should happen: coolant in the crankcase, damage to the main and rod bearings; and the cost of rebuilding or replacing the engine should that happen... I wouldn't wait any longer than absolutely necessary.

It's not that difficult to do, but does take a little while particularly if you've never done it before.

DeathCougar

iTrader: (23)

I agree with Abe. Get that taken care of ASAP. It doesn't take very long for a steel chain to wear through an aluminum cover. I can't tell you the number of covers and engines we have sold here at the wrecking yard that could have been avoided with a simple timing set change.

There is never a set time you have "before the chain snaps" but do you really want to tempt fate? When that chain snaps, you bend valves. And then it really gets time consuming and expensive. Fix it before something happens so you do not have to deal with a busted engine.

fulk112

Exactly how much of a pain is it to put a chain and guides in a 22re? i just so happened to replace the valve cover gasket today and noticed the same thing was going on with mine only it has 162k on it. I thought about tearing into it today but my labor book called for like 4 hours, and i didn't have that kind of time today any input would be greatly appriciated.

abecedarian

The biggest pains are getting timing cover off and not forgetting the bolt hiding in the puddle of oil in the front of the head, below the distributor.
The timing cover is mounted between the head and the oil pan so you have to loosen one or the other to get the cover off. If the guide is broken, the oil pan should be removed to get any debris out anyways.

iamsuperbleeder

bad things happen with the driver's side guide wear's down too far...











OH, and here's the rest of the guide






and maybe a little left from the previous owners timing job



and this is just the begining; if it keeps going, it'll wear through the timing cover and into the cavety where the water pump is, and collant then has a direct route down into your oil pan... which leads to overheating and head gasket blows...

vermontoyota

holy crap!!! I just called around and the general consensus on having a shop do it was $1050-$1250. If you've seen my posts on here you know my skillset is meager. I'm thinking about taking it into a shop but thats a lot of money! I'm also thinking about taking the 36 hours (I multiply the time it takes anyone else by three) and doing it myself and riding my bike to work for the next two weeks.

abecedarian

I did mine in 5 hours, taking a few beer breaks... so that should take you 15 hours tops. A good weekend project, no?

Siris

After reading this thread I stared listening for noises. I just recently started hearing what I think is a timing chain noise under heavy loads when going up long hills on the interstate. Around town it seems to stay quite. So I took the valve cover off tonight and all of the guides seemed fine, but the chain is pretty loose, especially on the drivers side. Exactly how tight should it be? I'm use working with belts sorry.

I also recently put a Weber 32/36 carburetor on my ole beast. Could it be just pinging that I'm hearing from the timing not advancing right?

92 TOY

1st of all see my thread and my mess.....
in my VERY limited experience, i would say the chain is harder than the cover, so the chain will definitely win evey time.
I have NO mechanic experience and I am doing this for the 1st time.....biggest hurdles are
1)reading before doing (ya know, kinda like the measure twice,cut once phiosophy)
2)slow and systematic approach
3)bag and label every bolt and nut and hose (i am using paper lunch bags so i write right on them)
4) pizza boxes make excelent templates to draw a rough outline and stab the bolts right in the exact place on the template
5)the biggest problems i've encountered so far are rusty bolts (PB Blaster is AWESOME for this....didn't break any yet) and the dreaded CRANKSHAFT BOLT.
I see your's is a 5-speed so it looks like it's a much easier (but still hard)job than having an Auto transmission.

I know i've read, and been told you can do the timing chain etc with the head on, i am taking my head off..........you, having only 72,000 miles, sounds like you are ahead of the curve and probably DON'T need to take our head off BUT (as is my way of thinking) if you have gone this far tearing stuff down may as well do a COMPLETE job. But MY advantage is, this truck used to be my daily driver but when it crapped out, I got another daily driver, so this is now like a science project for me......to see how hard it is to do it.
if you read through my thread, I will tell you. all in all i have probably put a grand total of abou 6hrs into this over several days. so if you could assemble a parts list and make a plan and dedicate a chunk of hours at a time for a few days, you could probably knock this project off relatively fast for you.

NMMarauder

I assume you have already seen this guide to replacing the guides and chain. I think when I go to do it I will replace the water pump, hoses, belts, basically everything that is going to wear out while I am in there. It will make the job more expensive but I hate doing almost the same job twice.

I don't mean to hi-jack the thread but I have to ask: Can you really see the guides well enough to assess their condition by just taking the valve cover off? I just adjusted my valve clearances and I didn't even think to look.

Jay351

Yes, you can plainly see the drivers side guide with the valve cover removed.

My first timing chain job took me 2 10hour days... Not that fun, but got'r'done!