Wavy stick

I'm very new to this, I just created this account because I couldn't find anything really answering my question.( a bit of background info if you want skip to the next paragraph to see the question its there) I'm a bit of a noob to the 22re and yotatech. I have a 92 4x4 and I just bought it back in March, and is now my DD. It's ran very well and sounded great thus far (other than the fart can noise it makes because the muffler blew out on one of the seems). The previous owner said he replaced the engine about 40k ago. It smoked a little when it was cold started but that went away once it warmed up, and needed new tires.

My issue is those darn timing chain guides. Some time last month I began to hear a rattling coming from the front of the engine and I'm certain that it's the drivers guide that broke off. (You can REALLY hear it when not hard accelerating or when the truck is under load)

I've done some reading on the forum and I know that the chain can grind through the timing cover to the coolant passage and mess your whole day up.

What I'm wondering is how long can I strech my time with it. I'm not looking for exact numbers but a ballpark range of about how many mile I can get out of it before it breaks. I can't get in there and fix it until the SUMMER due to work and school. I drive roughly 1000 miles each month.

Do do you think it'll last that long or should I start digging the grave?

gsp4life

You're hoping to put on another 5 or 6k miles before you can open it and you already hear chain rattle?

I hate to tell you this, but there's almost no chance. With a cracked guide, you can baby it through another few hundred miles, but even that's not recommended.

The good news is that a timing chain isn't as hard to replace as you probably think it is. There are some good write-ups with tons of photos and even a beginner can get it done in a couple weekend sessions as long as you take your time and follow instructions well.

wyoming9

iTrader: (1)

There is no way to know!!

It might be 5 miles it might be 50 .

My luck it would be 1/2 a mile and lock up in the worse place possible

It is your vehicle so if you have to keep going one does what one has to .

Then your changing the engine instead of just a timing chain

gsp4life

Just for fun, here's my experience of having the driver's side guide crack:

Near the start of a 300 mile drive from WV to NE Ohio, I heard a rattle. I kept going but didn't go over 50 mph, because the chain made less noise at lower rpm.

As I got closer to town it stalled every time I had to stop and didn't start up easily. The last few miles the noise grew louder and more consistent. I just made it into the driveway where it stalled one last time. Couldn't restart it and figured I was going to be replacing the timing set and head gasket, cause I was burning oil and wanted to see how it looked in there.

It turned out there was a lot of other stuff wrong with my 22re. It needed a full engine rebuild, including a new cylinder head, camshaft and timing cover, along with the more typical replacement parts.

In my case, the chain didn't eat through the timing cover to mix oil and coolant, but it did break apart the chain tensioner. After that, the very loose chain shattered an internal baffle in the timing cover around the crank gear which got the timing skipping all over the place. I'm sure some valves got bent but I didn't even check because the head looked like garbage due to a piece of broken piston ring that got mashed around in the #4 combustion chamber. Most of the valves were burnt.

This is why I think it's a bad idea to drive it another 5000 miles. You might get 500 out of it, but who knows. These are real tough engines that can limp along in the worst shape imaginable, but you'll save time and money if all it needs right now is a chain, gears and tensioner. You might even find a YT member nearby to help out. What state are you in?

WolfMann

Probably a good idea to get the valve cover off and poke around with a flashlight and screwdriver, see what the extent of the damage is so far.

Co_94_PU

iTrader: (-1)

Like they say above best to just get er done, fix it before it grenades.

That being said my 94 had I don't even know how many miles with no/bad guides, and what finally failed was the rod bearing for number 3. I drove it with no bearing for over a year, my friend drove it less than fifty miles before they roasted the crankshaft. (If you have no bearing rod knock ya need to match the crank and pistons speed to the road load not just cruising at whatever speed! It's a bit of a learned thing maybe but if it's doing it and you ignore it you are screwed sometimes fast sometimes slow)

Learn to keep the chain taunt. Shift early it keeps that driven side of the chain from flapping. Essentially "lug the engine down". You will need to keep the speed and rpms down, and just brush off the guys going around you wondering why your driving like an idiot old person creeping up on the speed limits..

X2 fix it ASAP, its not that hard. If you read through this site (and others) it's a lot of people's first foray into engine mechanic work that blossoms into a love affair.

Wavy stick

Yeah I've kinda noticed how shifting earlier helps keep the rattling down. I'm just going to have to baby it until the summer I guess. If it dies, it dies. Nothing I can do about it for a while due to work and school. I'll update this thread if anything happens 😬

Wavy stick

gsp4life

Glad to hear you got it done before it was too late. Also, nice job bringing the thread full circle. So many of em get left hanging with everyone wondering what happened.

How many miles did with the chain rattling?

wyoming9

iTrader: (1)

Glad things worked in your favor.