The last few weeks I have been hearing some annoying ticking noises from the engine of my 87 runner and were getting progressively worse. almost sounded like a diesel... At first i though it was my valve clearances, i checked all of them and they were mostly within specs. for some reason i thought it was something with my timing chain that I replaced several months ago (along with the guides and all that) so i took the front of the engine apart again and looked at everything, it all seemed to check out. i didnt even consider that it was just the injectors...

so i finished tearing down and began putting the engine back together. finally got it all done, the first noise disappeared thanks to some good 'ol Seafoam but now i have this horrid whine coming from somewhere in there. it increases with rpm but when i open the hood i cant really tell where the noise is coming from, aside from somewhere on the front of the engine. the oil pressure is still ok and besides the whine, runs fine.

is there a chance that i messed up the gearing in the oil pump? I thought i put the drive gear back in the way it came out... what should the orientation of the arrows on the gears be? when i put the new seal on the front, the outer gear seemed to be a little loose.

the only other thing i can think of is gearing on the distributor but i didnt see anything out of the ordinary when i took the valve cover off again.

before i take the entire engine apart again, are there any ideas as to what this might be?