I'm pretty sure my chain needs to be replaced and I am going to the shop next week to maybe get it done. It sounds like a diesel truck for a few seconds sometimes when you start it, particularly when you do a warm start. Been told it is the chain rubbing on the housing.

My question is will the rattling continue to get longer as it wears out before it completley wears out, or can it potentially fail at any time without warning?

I only ask because If it can last another few months maybe 6 at the most I am considering re-manufacturing my 22re.

Looks like it's $1000-1600 to get the chain done.
And it is $2000 for a re-manufacture.

 

pop your valve cover off, take a flash light and look down at the guides. you can check your chain to see how loose it is as well.

it can fail at anytime, so i would jump on it now if thats what you think it is.

theres plenty of writeups on here, if you do a search, you could find more than enough info to do the fix on your own.

engnbldr.com has a timing chain set with steel guides for under 100.00, and while your at it, it would be a good time to possibly replace your water and oil pump since they need to come off anyways.

edit:

heres a ebay link to one of his auctions with everything I listed plus a new timing cover for less than 150. Great guy to work with. I ordered my parts from him, including a new camshaft and recieved them within 3 days. 8 hours left in auction at time of this post (1:44 am PST)
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/TOYOT...21061883QQrdZ1

 

If it fails you will be buying new pistons, valves, and maybe some head work...


Why not do it yourself? Only costs about 100 bucks...

 

That price is RIDICULOUS for a timing chain job.

I rebuilt my entire 3.0, along with new bearings, seals, & calipers on the front axles, a new exhaust, & new clutch & flywheel for only about $3200, which included over $1700 worth of tools that I GET TO KEEP!

 

Actually its about right (1600 a little high).. 1100 is the base price usually.... You have to pull the head to do it right, TONS of labor...

 

Why do you have to pull the head?

 

I wish I could do it my self. It is my daily driver and I dont have tools or have the space or patience to do a job that big. Shops are telling me like 10-12hours labour, so for doing it my self that would be more like 10-12 days. Plus I want it to work after.

Hopefully I can find a backyard mechanic or something.

Anyway thats for the help guys.

 

Because the timing chain cover bolts to the head and has a dowel that the head centers on. So you have to loosen the head bolts, which means any decent mechanic will pull the head and replace the gasket.

 

I had my timing chain replaced about six years ago...when I first bought the rig. I took it to a Toyota mech of 14 years who was at the time decidedly working for himself. It took him six hours and did a fabulous job with no issues save the main seal which blew over 2yrs ago. Other than that, all has been well. I think he charged me in the neighborhood of $175 on labor. I bought the TC kit for another $90 from a local foreign shop.

All I'm saying is the job can be done....and well...without pulling the head. Although, for a novice it might be a good idea.

 

How can you do it w/out pulling the head? The head bolts MUST be loosened, and with an aluminum head and steel block I wouldn't ever consider loosening the head bolts and not replacing the gasket. You have to lift the front of the head in excess of 1/4"....

Not something I would do to my motor.


I have heard of people doing it by dropping the oil pan, but thats a whole other bag of worms, and you have to figure out how to patch the head gasket still.

 

Honestly, I don't know how he did it. At that time I knew NOTHING about wrenching or my motor, so even if I saw him doing things I wouldn't have known what exactly he was doing.

Fortunately, I'm on enough of friendly basis with the fellow that I could call him and ask him how he did it. He's working for Toyota again, so I can call him Monday or something. It'd do me good to know myself. My timing chain may be due for replacement soon, too.

 

The two centering dowels are both in the block. There is a bolt that goes through the front of the head into the timing cover, though. You can see the front dowel in the picture of the block, it's behind the timing parts. The other picture shows both holes in the bottom of the head for the locating dowels.

To do just the timing stuff, you don't have to touch the head bolts, although the head gasket is the seal between the head and timing cover. If you are careful not to tear the HG when you remove the timing cover, then really you don't have to pull the head at all. Some people don't even pull the pan, but my feeling is that either the head or the pan should come off to have a decent chance at getting the timing cover to not leak oil. I prefer the pan to come off so that I can clean it and the oil pump pickup and so if you take a little time when you take the timing cover off, you can dab some RTV along the top of the cover where it seals against the HG and at the corners where the block/head/timing cover come together and it'll work fine.

 

I did it with out removing the head. I really covered the headgasket with rtv, been working ever since..

 

Those quotes have to be dealership prices. My local dealer wanted $1500 and that was several years back. I ultimately bought the parts and had a mechanic I trust put them in. Charged 6 hours labor at $40 an hour. So less than $300 and good to go. Fast forward 75000 miles or so and the plastic guide on the driver's side let go...I strongly recommend the steel backed driver's side chain guide! This time around I did the job myself including pulling the head and dropping the oil pan to get all the pieces out. Ted's parts are top notch. I opted for the same kit EWAYota linked to as well as head gasket set and new head bolts. This time I'm out a little over $250 and the Memorial day weekend. Even if I had a mechanic do it this time with pulling the head It'd be less than $1000 easy. Shop around.

 

I went from the original plastic to metal backed. The metal ones broke and so I went back to OEM. My metal backed guides went just 45,000 miles... I don't know if it was just a manufacturing flaw or inherent design problem, but I got 140K out of my original set of plastic guides and so went back to the Toyota parts. You can see the part that broke off the top wrapped around my crank gear. That made the chain very unhappy, it snapped.

 

If you think that is what it is, i would definately get it done. Buddy of mine just had his break on his 22-re. It was an expensive repair...

 

Isn't the time chain recommended every 60K?

 

I think its more in the 80K range... But some are out there with many many more miles. On both my 22RE's they were first replaced at 120K, and they were fine... thou once you realize you need to do it you get really paranoid

 

Timing chain on my '89 22R was stretched and rattley at 95K, so I removed the oil pan and timing cover (without removing or loosening the head), and installed LC Engineering's conversion kit which allows a double-row timing chain, as used on earlier 22R motors, as well as metal backed guides, new oil pump, new timing cover, new water pump, etc.
Two years later, seems to still be fine.