I have an '86 pick-up extra cab 4x4 with a 4 cylinder 22RE Turbo EFI engine. The engines not running too well, as it is 'knocking'. Probly from the crankshaft and connecting rod sleeves??. Not sure what to do with it.
Could I change the engine to another 22RE, or possibly a 6 cyl engine?

 

rebuild the 22ret its worth it

 

what other problems could the engine be having with a knocking sound? It seems like its from the bottom end, so i think its not the valve stems..? im not too sure.

 

If it's a deep knocking coming from the block or crankcase, it's probably your connecting rod big-end bearings, or crankshaft main bearings. And if so there unfortunately is no cheap and easy fix. I'm with Black_1985_SR5, find a good local shop to rebuild it. If the turbo was stock originally in your '86, that's a nice special truck, I'd keep it that way.

 

22rte motors are rare and a complete truck to match is always worth an expensive repair bill.

 

Whoa, just noticed you are in Nunavut?! I don't know, it might be hard to find a shop up there that has experience with the 22RTE since they are rare. But still, if you can do it, that's what I would do.

 

You could always take the cheap route and just replace all the lower end rod bearings, main bearings and thrust bearings and leave the crank and block as is. I did that in my 22re 50k miles ago because it was knocking heavily and its still running strong now.

 

you might have to ship the whole motor south to a good machine shop to get the motor work done if you want it done right

 

It is not hard to swap, my 86 ret cracked a head and screwed up the turbo that I had just installed, So it was replaced with a 88 re . the swap was fairly straightforward. My truck had a auto trans and with the higher gearing ,the truck was very under powered so check the gear ratio. and if the turbo has not been changed it can be very expensive to rebuilt and good used ones are difficult to find. If i had to do it again the rte motor would still get replaced.

 

The turbos on these are a CT20 prone to cracking behind the exhaust elbow, between the exhaust turbine housing and the waste gate.
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The turbo MR2's used the C T20 as well, but they are a different orientation and won't work on your engine. Of course you can use an atfermarket manifold and drop on a Garrett hybrid (that's what I'm doing), but a cheaper upgrade is to make an adapter plate and swap in a CT26 off of a 7M-GTE Supra. The heads have a larger combustion chamber and are prone to cracking because there is less metal between combustion chambers, but many guys just put the smaller combustion chamber 22re heads on these and they work fine.(I'm doing that as well)
The rebuild parts for these are the same for a 22re, with the exception of the oil pump the 22RTE has a heavy duty oil pump, because it has to supply oil to the turbo in addition to the engine.
The electronics are different as well, the 22rte ECU fires 295cc injectors where as the standard 22re ECU fires 200cc injectors so if you are considering a 22re swap then you have to swap engine, harness and ECU. If your replacement engine is mid 88 or newer then you get into a newer problem. Your engine and wiring harness has low impedence injectors, with a resistor pack mounted under the hood on the inner fender. In mid 88 Toyota went to high impedence injectors without a resistor pack. Problem is this resistor pack is wired into the body harness not the engine harness so if you put one of these engines in you have to revamp the body harness and run the ECU that goes with the engine or source an ECU and injectors from a 22re that has low impedence injectors.
There is lots of info about the 22RTE on this site:-
http://www.22rte-trucks.com/simplemachinesforum/
I've done the 6 cylinder swap into a 22re pickup, it's a lot of work, there is fabrication involved and you better be very comfortable with reading automotive wiring diagrams and working with automotive electrical circuits. Personally I think the cheapest route would be to rebuild the 22RTE and upgrade to a CT26 turbo.
Good Luck!

 

When we did my swap I was told the turbo injectors where capable of flowing more fuel ,but would only flow what the motor required. The wiring , injectors and ecu where reused with the 22re and the truck ran and idled good . The truck would get around 18 mpg combined driving , the only problem was the 88 exhaust manifold was not set up for a o2 sensor .To fix this the manifold was drilled and tapped to accept the sensor. You can not lengthen the wire and put the sensor in the pipe by the converter, because it is not heated and it will foul out.

 

Rare does not mean good....

IMO, a rare turbo 4-cyl is just a recipe for a money pit. They can be very reliable, but you pretty much need a thorough rebuild by an experienced toyota shop.

Obviously, I opted to throw it out. For about the cost of a full rebuild, I'm putting a V6 in my truck with about 50% more power/torque than the turbo motor had to offer. And, it's a 4.3, so it's EXTREMELY cheap to maintain, as they're everywhere (which is why my running donor truck cost me $40).



I sold my non-cracked but oil-burning turbo on ebay for about $100. And couldn't give away the long block, so it was sent off for recycling.


Don't be scared off by the fact that I'm a year+ into my swap. That has more to do with the rest of my life than the difficulty of the swap.

 

Yes, I am from Nunavut, where there's no shops for rebuild, and shipping is quite expensive.
I think i just might take the cheap way out and just either change the crankshaft, or just the bearings. Still not sure tho. I'll still give it some thoughts.

 

You can drop the oil pan with the engine in the truck (front diff first, of course). At which point it is possible to plastigage the tolerances of the main and rod bearings fairly easily.


Mine were all within spec, but being run out of oil, the thrust washers had been spit out and crank shifted forward. I believe this angle ruined the wrist pin(s), which was the cause of the noise I was hearing.



Anyway, my point is, checking and replacing the lower end bearings is probably worth doing before you condemn it. But if I were to do it again, once the motor was out, I wouldn't have bothered with another 4-cyl.