Hey everyone this is my first time posting on a forum but I have been a avid reader of forums for all my problems but I've run into a dead end with this problem and I asked around but no one gave me any really solid diagnosis. So I figured I get some more opinions. So I own a 1987 4runner22re with 363,000 on it. This is my first car I bought for a little project and to fix up. It burns oil and knocks I'm hoping they're related but probably not. it runs great I drive it everywhere I've put around 15k on it and nothing seems to have gotten worse. PO replaced the motor but doesn't remember when but it for sure has under or around 100k on it. But I think the knock is getting worse or I'm just psyching myself out. So the knock gets quieter a the rpms increase. it seems to make more noise when its cold and if you bog the motor and go really slow in a gear like 4th it knocks really loud. For the oil it burns probably half a quart or a little less every 1000 miles running 10w-30. I've done a new timing chain with metal guides. Took the bottom end apart and it looked fine. Plugs are clean and each cylinder is running between 180-185. Adjusted the valves to .08 and .011. When I adjusted the valves it seemed to knock worse but again I think I may just be psyching myself out and its always been like that. Now the intake manifold is super oily and the pcv valve and hose always have a ton of oil in them. It doesn't smoke really unless you really get on it but even then it never really smokes. Can I burn oil through the pcv? or is it burning through the valve guides and seals and do bad valve guides make noise?. Or is it blow by through the pistons and for the knock could it just be piston slap I've heard that's semi common but I don't know forsure. I'm thinking I may just have to cut my losses and rebuild the motor but it would be nice if I could just do a head job on it and fix my problems. Any opinions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

 

Anything is possible, I guess, but it's not very likely that your knock is coming from the head.

Much more likely to be rod or wrist pin noise, or maybe piston slap.

 

that's not "burning oil" it's acceptable oil consumption... even a quart every thousand is preferable to going thru the hassle of an engine rebuild.

what does that mean? you pulled the pan and removed the bearing caps??

did you adjust the valves when the engine was hot? were they out of adjustment before you started?

if you tighten the valve cover too much it can cause a racket, so maybe that's why the noise increased.

these engines do not have hydraulic lifters, there will be clatter when the valves are properly adjusted, if it's perfectly quiet the valves are probably out of adjustment.

i'd be looking for exhaust leaks, especially if you are running the crappy factory toyota exhaust gasket... i went with the remflex exhaust gasket, it's like a dream come true, never leaks.

the other place it can leak is those two donut gaskets, located where the exhaust pipe bolts up to the exhaust manifold.

if you are looking at exhaust smoke for issues, get in a car behind the truck with a cellphone connection to the driver of the truck, so you know when he's fully accelerating and fully decelerating... blue smoke on deceleration is probably valve/valve seal related, blue smoke on acceleration is usually rings and such... black smoke is fuel related, white smoke is water/coolant issues.

you really haven't made much of a case for engine work here... maybe if we heard the noise we'd feel differently, tho, it's just that tearing into a motor because it's using half a quart of oil every thou isn't realistic to me.

since you've driven it for 15k with this noise, i'm skeptical that it's a rod knock problem... maybe cut the oil filter open, see if there are any metal particles in it.

 

Yeah I took the bearing caps off they looked fine and the crank looked fine. Im sure if.it was.rod knock it would of gotten worse or exploded by now. I did the valve adjustment when it was warmed up and they werent way off to begin with. I've heard they're just noisy motors and maybe its just normal and im trying to fix a problem that doesnt exist. I'm gonna take apart the rockers and look at the shafts and everything. Thanks for the info!

 

And when I looked.at the bottom end there was no metal shavings or anything and the oil looked clean

 

you can't take the rockers apart, because those bolts holding 'em on are what torques the head to the block, so you'd have to replace the headgasket.