Replacing 22Re Motor

[myrtletheturtle]

Hello!
I recently purchased a 1986 Toyota Dolphin with my boyfriend back in April. We did a few different projects on it to get it ready to move into, and now we are traveling out west and living out of it for the foreseeable future. We LOVE it; love the size, love the gas mileage, love pretty much everything about it! However, we've run into a pretty big issue of burning oil at a rate of almost a quart per tank. yikes. We've taken it in to a couple mechanics and today had a leak down test performed to find out exactly where the oil is leaking. Now, I am no expert on engines, so sorry if I'm explaining poorly, but we need some advice. The mechanic said that all four cylinders are leaking pretty heavily. Two are leaking at 30%, one at 40% and one at 70%. The timing chain is also broken. His advice was to find a replacement motor and just replace the whole thing. He said that we could try replacing the piston rings, but that the oil could be leaking out other places as well and that this would really just be a temporary fix. We are traveling to northern California and will be there a few weeks if anyone has any suggestions! We are just wondering if this advice is appropriate and if anyone has any experience with replacing a 22RE motor in a dolphin.
ANY and all advice is greatly appreciated! Thanks!

[linda s]

Wait a minute. You drove it to the mechanic but the timing chain is broken? Not possible. No timing chain, no run. At those read outs your camper must have black smoke coming out of the tailpipe. Is that the case? How many miles on it.

Linda S

[zero]

. The mechanic said that all four cylinders are leaking pretty heavily. Two are leaking at 30%, one at 40% and one at 70%. The timing chain is also broken. His advice was to find a replacement motor and just replace the whole thing. He said that we could try replacing the piston rings, but that the oil could be leaking out other places as well and that this would really just be a temporary fix. We are traveling to northern California and will be there a few weeks if anyone has any suggestions! We are just wondering if this advice is appropriate and if anyone has any experience with replacing a 22RE motor in a dolphin.

ANY and all advice is greatly appreciated! Thanks!

Some of that makes little sense to me. If the timing chain was broken - it would not run. If the cylinders leaked as bad as reported - it would not be running on 4 cylinders. If it was in my shop I'd first do a simple compression test. If low -I'd add oil into any low cylinder and see if compression then rises. If it DOES rise the problem is with the piston-cylinder. If it does NOT rise - the problem is in the valves.

Quart of oil per tank is a lot. Could be valve guides or could be wear in the piston-cylinders. If the later - new piston rings is not going to fix the problem. It would likely require boring the engine oversize, new pistons and new rings. I said "likely." There are exceptions.

Main thing is the add-oil-to-cylinder test. That will at least tell you if the wear is in the engine block or in the head. Note that if the engine needs a complete rebuild - you are probably better off buying a complete used engine IF the price is right and in good shape. Rebuild prices are often very high and the work often questionable. If you DO get a rebuild . . I'd buy a rebuilt engine from a known company and NOT have it done by some local guy.

[Derek up North]

Where are you now and where do you plan to drive to? Maybe someone will be able to suggest a good shop somewhere not far off your route, though it sounds like you should make it a priority.

P.S. I agree about the timing chain. If it's 'broken', you're engine won't run at all. It puts into doubt anything else the mechanic has told you.

[Maineah]

He most likely is saying the chain is toast just worn out guides and chain that means it most likely has 150k miles on it or more. Regardless of any thing else being bad the chain and guides have to be replaced if left alone it will ware a hole in the timing case and fill the engine with antifreeze.If the engine is a bad as they say it is an exchange engine maybe in order.

[MontanaChinook]

Yeah you should get more from him...like the compression numbers, what's actually wrong with the chain, what exactly he found and what he thinks it needs. I realize it's hard to interpret mechanic language when you don't really understand engines. But it'll be hard for us to give advice unless we know exactly what the mechanic found, instead of your interpretation That's not meant to be mean or anything, it's just the case with anything that isn't your area of expertise...I know I mix things up when I'm trying to explain something an expert told me, when it's something I don't know much about.

Yes, that's a lot of oil. That alone needs to be addressed if you're really going to travel in this thing. And the timing chain...not something to mess around with. If it truly is on the way out, you really need to replace it. Most timing belts are "non-interference", which means when they break the engine stops running, but all you need to do is put a new belt in.

When a timing chain breaks, pistons slam into valves and the engine is pretty much destroyed. Not just not running. You could have a completely new engine, and if the timing chain breaks, it destroys the engine. You won't just need to replace the chain like you would a belt. You'll need a whole new engine.

Most often, if an engine is at a point where it needs a new timing chain and is burning oil, I'd say it's time for a rebuild. Probably the head gasket is ready to go also.

But...depending on whether you can afford that much work...it's worth looking into it more. Maybe you just need a head job and new timing chain, and have the head gasket replaced while they're in there. That's cheaper than an entire rebuild (though still probably a couple thousand...).

Fact is, you're looking at serious engine work. If you or someone you know can do the work yourself, you could keep it under $1,000. The parts are actually pretty cheap (relatively). But no matter how you look at it, this job is a lot of labor, and labor is expensive.

If you can, get the mechanic to actually give you a receipt (which he should have done anyways) which spells out what tests he performed and what he found. Scan and post it, or just write what it says here.

Depending on how creative you are, there's also the possibility of finding a used engine in good shape. Depending on how lucky you are, there might be someone on this forum or elsewhere, near where you are, that would help you pull the old one and install the new one...Then you could maybe get out of this for pretty cheap.

If nothing else, don't get discouraged! Hopefully the camper isn't too high-mileage, and this isn't just the start of problems. Hopefully you can get through the engine issues and be back at it without spending too much, and hopefully even learn a lot while you're at it...This stuff happens.

[jdfrost64]

you can get great 22 re long blocks cheaper than u can rebuild or have someone do it a company called perfect engines sell 22 re long blocks for around $1600 they are a real good shop. or they can get you a new not rebuild long block