Timing chain time
 

Time to do the T chain on my 89 4x4 22RE of course.

What should I look at or just replace while I'm at it? I have the new timing set with the updated steel guides, a new tensioner, a new timing cover(I bought the truck knowing that the Tchain need to be replace, and I'm unsure how long it was run with a sloppy chain) all the gaskets and fun stuff. The water pump is a no brainer, I'll check the bearings and have a look at the seals if I can. What about the oil pump? The truck has 150K on the clock, and if I should replace the pump, do i need a new drive gear to go with it? Any thing else I may be forgetting??

Mine's an '89, and i did the timing chain job a couple years ago. 153,000 miles at the time. The cover was grooved pretty deeply, but not through to water. I had no problem with the fastener for the harmonic dampener. Just put it in 4th gear and set the brake. 19mm impact socket (prepared for worst) on a 1/2 drive flex handle and a good tug on it and came loose OK. Major hassle for me was scraping gaskets and cleaning parts. The one snag was the two screws that fasten the very front of the pan to the timing cover would not go. I don't know what the cause. The cover is an engine builder piece and is fine in every other respect.

Doing it again I'd fit everything that I could dry and check the fits before I apply the goop and screw it together for good.

I didn't remove the head or the pan and was lucky that the gaskets didn't get damaged. Used Permatex gray RTV and everything sealed-up OK. I just left the two screws off and it doesn't leak yet 15,000 miles later. I didn't see any reason to replace the oil pump and I used plastic chain guides. I figured that Toyota had a good reason for using plastic, and I'll be too old to worry about it by the time these are worn out (I hope).

JJ'89 you had an issue with the fit of engnbldr's timing chain cover? I ask this because I am planning on buying his t-chain set with the metal guides and was toying with the idea of a new cover from him as well but if it is off a bit I won't get the cover.

I plan on getting the complete front (chain, cover, oil and water pumps) from ENGNBLDR. Did you ever ask him about it?(the 2 screws)

hey all i'm new to toyotas... actually i don't even own one yet but i plan on buying an 89 4x4 within the next week or so. the guy is a friend of mine and has told me that the 180k 22re needs a timing chain. so my question is this has anyone bought a set from japanengine.com and if so how is the quality? if its let me know and if this engnbldr fellow has a better set out how do i get ahold of him or what is his site?

wow I just sent a friend of mine to Enginbldr for a timing chain set and COVER. I would like to hear what they say about the match up and the 2 bolts. :domo2:

just email engdnbldr himself and he will tell you anything and everything you need to know.

I went with engdnblder parts. I did not get the oil pump, just the cover and T set.
I figured if I need a pump, I could get one local.

As far a cleaning parts, I'm going to hit the engine bay with the high temp pressure washer at work before I dig in, I hope this will get things fairly clean for me before I start. The PO left some oil leaks go for a long time, and the engine bay it a mess to say the least! I'm having to fight a lot of neglect on this rig!

let us know how it goes with the cover

My parts from Engnbldr, including a timing cover, should arrive any day now. I'll compare the bottom bolt holes to my stock cover. I'm hoping JJ's issue was just a bad run.

Put in a new front seal and o-ring whether you replace the oil pump itself or not. If your crank pulley is deeply grooved you should address that.

Well, i know you probably dont wanna spend the money, But 90 dollars for a head gasket kit while your at it wouldn't be a bad idea, its gonna have to happen sometime or another and it might as well happen while you've got the timing chain cover off and everything. Trust me, i wish i woulda fixed mine BEFORE it went out. You get alotta texts from people asking how your truck blew up when your your pouring smoke out of the exhaust. And that burnt oil coming from the cylinder clogs EVERYTHING up. Trust me, Its a good move and a little more work. But your gonna need a Torque wrench for the Head Bolts.

PS. DON'T DROP THE SPRING TENSIONER BOLT IN THE OIL PAN!!! IT REALLY SUCKS TRYING TO GET IT OUT. If you do, go to Autozone and get a telescopic magnet and stick it in between the block and the oil pan after you take that cover off. You might get lucky...i did.

Bo, thanks for the tips! I don't plan on owning this truck much more than say about 6 months, so I think I'm going to skip the head gasket.

As far as bolts in the oil pan, man I have been there before! I learned a long time ago, when you make a opening that you don't want stuff to fall in, stuff rags in it, tape it off, other wise cover it, or it will develop it's own gravitational force and pull everything out of your hand, sockets or what have you, right in to the black abyss!

I did a tc in the summer. I used EB tc kit with the metal drivers guide. Thats it.

Once I had all the bolts out of the block and cleaned of the old rtv that the builder of the engine gooped on, I threaded each bolt into the new timing cover to make sure they all fit. They all did!

Then I just threaded them all back into the old timing cover and just used that as a guide when putting them all back in.

Go to the dealer and get a tube of their gasket maker, best stuff If ever used! didnt cost much compaired to other gasket stuff.


Make sure you remove your oil pan and scoop out all the broken plastic timing chain guide. Mine had a good handfull of plastic, with peices up to 4" long (I dunno how the hell that missed the timing gear!)..


The timing cover gasket ripped around the water bypass (still had some coolant in there) and leaked. So I just removed all the old gasket around the water bypass tube (ripped it) and used fipg.


Make sure you replace the hard to reach rad hoses once you're in there, and belts and stuff.. ITs easy once everything is apart.

Make sure you dont install oil pump drive gear untill after you install the timing cover. I did it the other way around (the way the FSM says too) and almost ruined the portion of headgasket that the timing chain attaches too..

I did not. I looked it over good and it looked like everything was seated OK, and I figured unless it leaked, I wasn't going to redo it anyway

Personally, I've been considering the dual-row conversion from LCE, yet I see many people seem to not go that route. My understanding of it is that dual-row means one of the only true flaws with late-model 22Rs, the high failure rate of the single-row chain tensioner after 80k-140k miles goes away, but increases drag on the crank. What is the reasoning behind staying with the single-row chain? It seems like the dual-row conversion makes for a more reliable setup.

>>>*My son Tod told me he had a couple of reports about two bottom bolt holes not tapped correctly awhile back. A report to engineering was sent, someone at the factory had a bad Monday or Friday it seems. He checked all the ones in stock, they seemed to be just fine.

*Easy fix with a thread chaser, but not everyone has one of those in tbeir tool box and they shouldn't have to. Like everyone, we get a concern now and then, no matter who we buy from.

All should be corrected by now, though. If anyone has had any other issues, email me directly so I can fix it....*EB

I'm in the middle of doing mine right now going to finish tomorrow. I too had chucks of plastic in my oil pan. My cover was grooved but not enough to replace, but the old gaskets were a pain to get off! I don't think its ever been taken off before. Everything in the engnbldr kit was perfect for me. while I have the distributor out I'm replacing the o ring on the shaft. Its like 3 dollars at the dealer could save you an oil leak.

Hah! never occurred to me the holes might be undersized or angled; figured they might have been mispositioned. Should have sent a message, but figured not going to disassemble in any case unless other issues arose. Curious where the covers were sourced? I'm a metal-shop kind of guy and the foundry and machine work looked first-class to me.