i changed my timing chain last summer and have put about 6000 kms since then. a few months back it started making the same sound again and i thought i was going to have to do it again. today i finally dragged my lazy ass outside to take the valve cover off to be sure and found that both guides appear to be fine from what i can see. the drivers side had a lot of slack - i was able to move the chain and touch the bolt heads that fasten the guides in place. is that normal? the passenger side had almost no slack at all. i hear the rattle for the first 3-4 minutes of driving on a cold start (not at idle) and when i go up hills (the furthur i push the gas pedal, the worse the rattle gets). Ideas?

 

That to me doesn't sound like a timming chain, since under hard power the chain would be under tension, not slack. Does that make sense?

Could also be a small exhaust leak mimicking the sound. At startup (cold) the metal would be apart and when it warms up the metal expands and seals enough to not make the sound. When going up hills and pushing the motor, the exhaust pressure would be enough to leak again. I had a similar sound (also replaced a timing chain, so I know that type of sound) and it turned out to be my exhaust manifold had a hairline crack in it. Check the exhaust manifold under the heat shield (look for discoloration black, brown, ect), the downpipe from the manifold at the weld on the Y and the doughnut gaskets inside of that connection.

Hope that helps.

P.S. That guy was using the pic of your truck on ebay again. Only problem is he only puts auctions up for 1 day.

 

I thought the slack was supossed to be on the passanger's side?

 

if everything is working correctly, there should be no slop, thats what the tensioner is there for, something is not right

 

 

I had that same rattle once on my '86 22re. It ended up being one of those black bumper ends that was a little loose. It was vibrating up against the fender while idling.

 

When you did your timing chain, did you replace your Tensioner? (hydraulic operation) especially if that is aftermarket, they tend to wear out fast and stick. I had the same problem in my 86, and when i took my timing apart, the tensioner fell apart in 3 pieces.

 

it's all altrom parts. toyota was 3x as expensive. i couldn't justify the price difference.

 

I agree, If the timing kit is working correctly there shouldn't be any slack. Since you see both guilds, I'd think that the tensioner is shot. The 3x price tag form dealer might be worth it since you get to drive 100k on OEM parts. Hope you can find another source of the slack so your don't have to tear back into in again.

 

the tensioner is located on the passenger side though. it wouldn't be able to tighten the drivers side because the sprocket teeth on the cam and crank would prevent that. I'm also 99.9% sure that I set up the chain correctly (dimples on the gears lining up to the silver links in the chain). I'm wondering now if perhaps the noise i'm hearing is pinging.

 

Couldn't justify the price difference? And now you are having problems. Need I say i told you so? Sometimes you have to pay for quality. I dont care WHAT people say about how good the aftermarket ˟˟˟˟ is, it just doesn't work like factory parts. That ESPECIALLY holds truye for toyota. You also didn't answer my question, did you replace the tensioner when you did the timing chain?

 

Or Like I said a small exhaust leak they tend to sound exactly the same, even more so if it is the manifold.

 

My 89 22re has 206,000 miles on it, I hear a slight tapping or slapping noise for a few minutes when it's cold. I've heard people call it piston slap, due to the short skirted piston design and the fact that everything other than the timing chain has 206,000 on it. When the metal heats up and expands, the pistons don't have as much room in the cylinders to rattle around. It's been making that sound for 60,000 miles with no mishaps.

I had a timing chain slapping the cover before...didn't go away after warm up.

 

Yes it was replaced with an altrom tensioner.