Quick question for you all. I am finishing up a Head Gasket/Timing Belt/Water pump job for a '92 4Runner 3VZE. Behind the timing cover I have come across 3-4 small (maybe 1/8") ball bearings. The idler bearings seem to be sealed and spin just fine. Where else may have these bearings come from? Water pump? Could this explain the recently blown head gasket? Thanks in advance...

 

Probably from one of the idlers, my buddy's STI spit out a bunch of those when an idler went. Make sure to look at them carefully, but could they have been left over from a previous idler grenade?

 

yeah, it looks like the idler bearing seals are still in really good condition... as you said, it must have been from a previous incident...

 

Actually I noticed the same thing behind my timing belt cover. I have found 2 and i cannot pin point where the heck they came from.

 

I had the same thing on my 94 I bought. Both pulley wheels were completely seized up and there was little bearings all over the place!!! Make sure to you get them all out, cause if one comes out whilst wheelin its gonna go into the timing belt and make a mess of things.

 

I just did a fan bracket replace, when it blew up it spit 4-5 of those ball bearings inside the timing belt cover...

 

Ok that explains where the ball bearings came from. When I bought my 4runner someone had changed the fan bracket so it must have happened to them as well. So I guess it is a good thing they put on the wrong fan bracket and didn't have a tensioner other wise I would have never had to open it all up and find those 2 bearings.