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20 R rebuild question

Carbon14

Wincher
Joined
Jun 11, 2020
Messages
65
Location
Golden, Co
I pulled the oil pan to start a rebuild, and to my horror, I found about 1/4/ inch chunk of the brown Bakelite plastic like is used for cam chain tensioners and similar in the pan. I intend to pull the cam chain cover tomorrow. Here is the deal, I can find no internal part in the diagrams, or parts list that is made of this material. I now suspect that it was an incidentally dropped chunk. The engine was running fine and strong before I started this rebuild, I am just going completely through this rig to make it better than new. This is (I think) a 78 engine in a 72 badged Hilux.
 

DaveInDenver

Rising Sun Ham Guru
Joined
Jun 8, 2006
Messages
13,097
Location
Grand Junction
Nothing Bakelite comes to mind in the timing of a 20R. It should be double row chain, metal backed guides with a bonded rubber surface. Maybe the running surfaces on them originally were Bakelite, though, can't say. The ones I've seen the past 25 years have been rubber on metal. Maybe the tensioner foot? It has been a rubber on every one I've seen. But I have not seen original 40+ year old 20R internals first hand. Thing is if you lost guide or tensioner you'd know it. It would rattle and maybe even skip teeth, which throws the cam timing off and it runs poorly. So if it was quiet and running well I doubt the parts are timing.

On 22R the timing I think was expected to last as long as a headgasket (about 100k to 150k) but I'm not sure the 20R parts, maybe a couple of headgaskets or the life of the engine.

The problem here is availability. People would upgrade 22Rs to double rows using 20R parts and a deeper timing cover. So that strained the parts for 20R people who actually needed them. The OSK kit you want is T005K. There's some out there still (search also W0133-1899011 or look for 1984 or older 22R in Pickup or Celica). This kit plus a water pump and water pump gasket (Aisin WPT-017) gets you the front end. You probably don't need a new oil pump and the OSK kit should come with a new front main seal. You *may* need to sleeve the crank if your front main seals has worn a deep groove and leaks.

If you cannot find OSK or Toyota boxed OSK (the OEM) then you're in a delicate situation. I would not personally use anything other than OSK but using 1985+ 22R parts would require several misc parts and even then I'm not sure if it would fit with the pan and head. If an all OSK kit isn't found I'd really work hard to find an OSK tensioner at least.

Your choice is to drop the pan, pull the head (this is the Toyota FSM way) or neither (bending lip of pan to fit, least preferred option). Since the 20R has a positive relief sealing surface pan you can get a gasket to put it back on. It's the easiest way to do it unless you want to do a HG. Plus it sounds like you already dropped it.

You may need a couple of woodruff keys. Those sit in slots on the crank to drive the oil pump, Toyota 95161-10519. Those are $4 each peace of mind.

I'll add that those metal backed guide can break. I had a single row kit that used shaved down double row in the 22R-E in my old 1991. The driver side snapped off at the top and got speared by the crank gear. It was a mess. I'm firmly in the "Do it the way Toyota intended" on timing now. Down to using OEM bolts, no substitutions. Oh, also torque the timing chain tensioner (the piston dealie) bolts exactly. I think it's 12 ft-lb.

IMG_0743_med.jpg

IMG_0745_med.jpg

IMG_0747_med.jpg

This is stock parts on a 22R-E, but it's vaguely similar on a 20R. This is before I put the head back on and hadn't yet zip tied the chain up to hold it in place.

IMG_0894_mid.jpg

IMG_0895_mid.jpg
 
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Carbon14

Wincher
Joined
Jun 11, 2020
Messages
65
Location
Golden, Co
That was helpful, Thank You. The found part looks like it is a fragment of a bolt mount tang. Now that I think about it the part could be part of a fuel pump also. Which is no problem as I am switching to an electric pump and plating over the mechanical pump. We'll see today if the wind cooperates. The big worry is that another chunk could be blocking an oil passage. The top end looks good, the bottom as well.
 

DaveInDenver

Rising Sun Ham Guru
Joined
Jun 8, 2006
Messages
13,097
Location
Grand Junction
Fuel pump, maybe the spacer? I could see that being Bakelite. Pretty long path to get down into the pan.
 

Cruisertrash

Rising Sun Member
Joined
Aug 18, 2020
Messages
2,012
Location
Denver
I have a 22R block and a complete 20R I might part with, FYI. The 20R is attached to a 1979 Corona though, and is full of milkshake. The 22R is a core I got from Yota Yard before they closed, Randy said it was good. The plan was a 22R block (more displacement, better parts availability) with a mildly DIY ported 20R head (better flow than the 22R head and bolts right up) with a Weber 32/36 on top and maybe a mild cam. Supposedly this takes a stock 20R, good for about 95hp to about 130hp - with no turbo. That’s for a street car and not a truck though. If any of that is useful to you let me know.
 

DaveInDenver

Rising Sun Ham Guru
Joined
Jun 8, 2006
Messages
13,097
Location
Grand Junction
@Cruisertrash make sure you understand the 22R block situation. To gain the advantage you need a late/laser (85-95) block and then you have to mill the head to get the timing chain to fit. Then you get 10:1 compression. Putting a 20R head on an early 22R block is marginal benefit. On paper it flows better but real world, yeah, maybe. The problem is both 20R and 79-84 22R have a lot of the same NLA issues.



I did a bunch of tricks on the 1991 22R-E in Imelda, slightly shaved head, oversized valves, ported, polished, 231 cam, bored throttle body, 4-to-1 LCE header, 2.25" exhaust. It was still slow pulling to the Tunnels. Louder, but still slow. That was supposedly going from a stock 115 HP to probably 130 HP. I never got around to getting the adjustable cam gear to degree it. I was pretty sure my cam timing was off a little. It was more driveable (the idle was really lumpy and didn't like to pull until 2K RPM) when I went back to a stock exhaust manifold and 1-7/8" stock exhaust.

The effort IMO is better spent putting on a turbo. Then you don't need to do anything other than run head studs. No special headgaskets, 91 octane or milling to fit a timing chain and it doesn't care about elevation.
 
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Carbon14

Wincher
Joined
Jun 11, 2020
Messages
65
Location
Golden, Co
There was no problem behind the cam chain cover, so I will go with some foreign object dropped down the oil filler.
 
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