Mason Edmison

Going down the list of to dos on a recently acquired 94 pickup with the 22re.

I have seen a few conflicting bits of information of rather to remove the cylinder head on the 22re when doing the timing chain. Some say that they see oil leaks after a few thousand miles when not removing the head?

Was wondering what your all experiences have been? Removing the head seems like it would add quite a few steps but if that's what it takes. If I don't have to remove it that would be fantastic.

Also, do you replace the timing cover if there are any signs of scoring or only if it is deeply worn through? I have not visually confirmed the drivers side guide is broken but when I rev the engine up I most definitely hear the "marbles rolling around" sound in the front end of the engine.

Thanks

JJ'89

My experience was good luck with removing the balancer/pulley, and timing cover. Blocked the wheels, shifted into 4th, parking brake applied. A good tug on a 24 1/2 drive flex handle and the fastener un-screwed. Very carefully using a thin spatula, I seperated the cover from both the head and pan without damging the gaskets. At 155,000 miles, the driver side plastic guides were broken; some pieces down in the pan. The cover was deeply grooved just like a couple of keyways.

I bought parts from enginebuilder, rockauto, and Toyota. I was new to Toyotas then, so I just bought a kit from Rockauto for the chain, sprockets, tensioner, etc. Cover from Enginebuilder. Miscellaneous gaskets etc. from Toyota. Permatex UltraGrey gasket stuff when I put it back together.

I just scribed a line when I removed the distributor, and lined it up when I installed th distributor. I didn't and don't worry about stuff in the pan. About 26,000 mile since then and runs good. I can hear some slack when it first starts up. Maybe got an inferior tensioner or scewed-up the install on it. I understand that it's easy to overtorque that one.

Doing it again, I'd go with all Toyota parts. I'm not especially cost-sensitive for parts nowadays, considereing the flood of imported junk out there. The cover I got from enginebuilder fit perfect except the two holes at the front for pan fasteners. Since the pan was still installed, I didn't want to try to enlarge the holes in it. Just gave it the Ultragrey and left the fasteners out. Lucky again...no leaks. Enginebuiolder cover is nice casting and machine work. I don't know if its Jap or Chicom manufacture, but it's been fine.

Here's one! Don't do like I know not to do and did anyway: carefully tap the balancer off with a soft hammer. It was probably on its last leg anyway, but that finished it off. Vibration when I had it back together. Got another from Rockauto and its been good to go ever since.

I don't do this stuff often anymore...this was the first DIY car repair I've done since the 80's. Lot of us old geezers learned to do this in auto shop during high school days, and kept our old Fords, Chevys, Plymouths etc. going back in the day cuz we didn't have money and you could acutually fix stuff back then. Easy enough job; worst part scraping gaskets and cleaning parts. Good luckon yours.

p.s. I'd really try to avoid removeing the head. You'll never get a better assembly than factory assembled. You can read all about head gaskets, head and block surfacing, torquing etc. on this forum...

Mason Edmison

JJ'89

Weekend easy. I spend a lot of time cleaning parts, surfaces and fasteners. I won't venture a guess on how long it will take you. I don't know what a flat rate book number would be for this job. Probably specifies R&R the head and pan, and savvy mechanics beat the book by not pulling head and pan whan they can. That would be taking a chance, in case a savvy customer inspects closely or tiny probability of oil pickup gatting obstructed. Did you find the two how-to-do-it artcles on-line?

Mason Edmison

Good deal. Yeah I think book time is 13 hours but that includes removal of the cylinder head and oil pan (which if anyone can do that in 13 hours, holy moley, haha).

The two articles I have found are: http://www.4crawler.com/4x4/CheapTri...ingChain.shtml
and
http://www.4x4wire.com/toyota/maintenance/timingchain/

Any others that you would recommend?

scope103

I would rely on the Factory Service Manual before anything else. http://web.archive.org/web/201210231.../8timingch.pdf

Of course, Toyota recommends removing the cylinder head and oil pan. If you're trying to get away without that, you'll need to supplement your research.

wyoming9

iTrader: (1)

The down side to leaving the head on is the oil leak between the timing cover and head since the head gasket gets torn up

JJ'89

Whose oil leak? Yours? No oil leaks on mine 26,000 miles later...

JJ'89

I have the factory manual and referred to it. The op has the two excellent how-to-do-its links.

wyoming9

iTrader: (1)

Several that I needed to fix over the years i always pull the Head and the oil pan

Sure it takes work but when your paid $100.00 plus an hour you don`t skip steps .

I am glad yours did not leak

gsp4life

I have some experience with this, so here's my 2¢. I've left the head on once and done it by the book (pulled the head) twice.

I didn't get any leaks after either of the 3 jobs, but I prefer to pull the head anyway, because you can catch more issues and clean things up better (clean combustion chambers, measure cam lobes or replace cam, check valves, clean the rocker assembly, etc).

In either case, it's wise to pull the oil pan and clean it out and the oil pickup tube screen, cause you don't want to develop low oil pressure right after this job. I've found new Toyota head gaskets seal really well if the surfaces are flat and clean. Most dnj parts are fine as-is, but I'd get a genuine Toyota chain tensioner. Engnbldr sells a cheap kit just like this. There's plenty of horror stories out there, and I had a NAPA brand tensioner fail in 38k miles and it ruined my engine. I recommend to torque the tensioner bolts 9 ft/lbs and use high-temp thread sealant to keep them in place. The tensioner can stick if you torque it much higher.

If you're going to keep the head on, loosen the oil pan to give some wiggle room and pry it off really gently. You don't want to rip or damage the front peice of head gasket or it'll never stop leaking. When you put the timing cover back in, wipe a thin coat of fipg on the bottom of the exposed head gasket and the top lip of the cover. That will both lube it for install and help seal back up. The paper timing cover gaskets work great unless the surfaces are mangled.

Good luck, let us know how it goes.

Mason Edmison

Thanks for all of the replies! I did a compression test on the engine today and read about 175 on all cylinders. Im leaning towards not pulling head as it seems like the top end and rings are in decent shape. I intend to pull the oil pan to get the plastic bits out and clean the pickup. I am going to get a bit more familiar with the write ups and hope to do the job in the next few weeks.

anndel

Did the same, also putting Ultra Grey in the corners where the cylinder head, timing cover and engine block meets is crucial. Did it 4 years ago and so far no leaks and still running great on our 93 Yota. Good luck!