Pretty sure that my timing chain cover has gone bad...

Replaced head gasket and valves (due to unrelated issue) about 10,000 miles ago. At that point, the head was .006 of an inch warped, I decided to run with it. New bolts were torqued to 58 pounds on an OEM gasket with no silicone. Ran good for about a year. I then noticed water in my oil last winter, so I replaced the head gasket again. The problem seemed to go away when I had it running again in March.

Now this winter, the same thing... Water in my oil, but no oil in my water. I have installed a breather onto the valve cover short term to keep the goo from going into the carb, but I need to get this fixed. It runs good, although hard to start at times, and it never really warms up, so I don't think it is a head or gasket problem.

Am I on the right track by going after the timing chain cover?

 

This is a 22 series engine right, might wanna put in info on what your driving.

If you think its the timing cover, take off the valve cover and look for a hole from the chain.

 

Yeah, a 22R, Just about to dig into it.

 

How much water in the oil? If you pull the dipstick and the mocos aren't half way up, I'd think it's more likely the HG went again due to the warpage. Why do you keep replacing the gasket without surfacing the head?

When the chain on my wife's truck ate the timing cover, I had water in the oil and oil in the water.

 

compression tests good, performance is fine. It is quite a bit of water (without any leaks, I am adding about a quart of water every 50 miles). The odd thing is, the oil on the dipstick looks decent enough. The valves is where all the milkshake is appearing, so I gotta believe that the timing chain is throwing coolant up there...

I was told by the toyota folks here that six thousands was good to go, just not any more than that.

 

I wonder if that breather is allowing moisture from the air to enter the valve area and contaminate the oil up there? Also, if you don't let the carb suck the crankcase gasses out, you will get condensation in the valve cover- steam rises, right?

 

It could be when not running, it is just a standard breather, and when running, it pumps air out pretty good. The standard PCV is still functioning properly also. I installed the breather to let the water back out instead of into the carb for a temp. fix so I can still run it.

I got a couple days off here, so I will start tearing apart and update...

 

Blown HG, blow by on two pistons, bad thermostat, broken timing chain cover... and it still runs!!!

Time for a new motor. Going to start from scratch with a standard bore, maybe a stage three cam and pacesetter header...

Time for another 235,000 miles! Well, off to the hottank with my new block!

 

Wow... Busy summer! Truck has a brand new rebuild on a '90 22R, stock bore, RV1 cam.. good torque range 1900-2600 RPM. Runs Good.