Dear Yota gods,

First and foremost, I like to thank for this great site and for all the great techie posts/answers.

I have an '88 yota truck with a 22R (~185k mi.) engine that I recently purchased. I have replaced a lot of safety stuff and was hoping that it will get me to 250k mi. without any major issue.

Well, recently I have noticed that my coolant disappeared into the blue sky and the oil filling cap has white/gray milky residue/oil sticking to it. Also, the truck would hesitate under load like going up hill or applying a lot of gas to it. So, I researched this site and came to conclusion that I need a new head gasket. With the Chilton manual and this site, I then proceeded to do the head gastket replacement to find out that the #4 head bolt (in tightening sequence) was broken. The head gastket seemed fine when I got it out. I spent two solid days the last weekend doing the whole job and was so happy to put everything back without any nitch.

But wait, I have not start it up yet. Ok, here come the scary part...

I started it up and drove it (seemed to drive ok) for ten miles and then noticed that it idled like a diesel engine or even louder. At points I could hear the engine screeching, eeeking or grinding against something. I figured that I would need to do valve clearance after I warm it up and so I did, but it still running like a diesel engine.

Please help, did I somehow kill my yota?

I had a mechanic who I don't know stood in front of it and listened. He said I broke the timing chain guide somehow. How could I have done that when I didn't really touch it? Well I kinda tied the chain to the sprocket to prevent it from slipping off and set it inside the timing cover and then put it back when I put the head back.

Thanks so much in advance and sorry for the long explanation...

Ken

 

You should be able to see both timing chain guide with the valve cover off. The driver side one does have a tendancy to break and fall into the oil pan. If you don't see them they need to be replaced. Also your timing chain may have slipped a tooth when the head was off. If so the valves are out of time and you could be doing some serious damage! At 185K you need to replace the timing chain and guides. Go with the steel backed guides from DOA racing, the OEM and aftermarket guides are plastic. There a good chance your going back into the engine to solve this problem.

The 'diesel' sound can come from the timing chain slapping against the timing cover. this will wear a hole and hot oil and water start mixing

Hope this helps.
also try the search here their is alot of info on 22r repairs.
godd luck and happy wrenching.
Nathan

 

Nathan,

Thank you for the quick reply.

I remembered that when I took off the valve cover to do the valve adjustment I also took a look down the timing cover and it seemed fine. I didn't specificially look at the guide but I think it is still there (I hope ). I will open up the valve cover and inspect it more carefully this time. I'll try to capture a pix to display it here.

I can understand your point of replacing the chain and guides because I have 185k mi. I am a pretty handy diy guy (this is my first major engine work undertake) but I didn't want to open up another can of worm that is why I tried not to touch the chain part, but I guess I have no choice now.

I tried to search here in hope to find instructions on timing chain replacement but have not find any yet. The Chilton manual is so vague, it assumes that I have done this job before and only use it as a reference. Do you know of a link for the instructions or gotcha's for replacing the timing chain? Also, do I need a special tool or anything?

Thanks Nathan,

Ken

 

Ok, I did some more searching and found a thread with the below instruction links.

I like to thank Warren (Skydigger) for pointing out these links.


Timing chain removal instruction #1

Timing chain removal instruction #2

Well, I am going to take a look into doing this this weekend.

ken