quick question 22r motor

[moparvwfreak]

84 with 285,000 on the clock. no idea if thats right or whats been done to the motor. on start up, this thing seems to have a real faint knock. not real loud, but i have not pinpointed it. timing chain maybe??? after a bit it seems like it goes away. also the oil pressure, at idle warm, is a little low. under load it is about 1\2 way up the gauge. i THINK thats where it should be. ideas???

 

[turboSR5]

A sloppy timing chain should sound like a rapid ticking, imagine a large bicycle chain rubbing across rigid plastic or aluminum at high speed. It can sound almost like valve ticking but it will be coming from the front of your motor as opposed to the top of your valve cover. If your chain has a ton of slop and a dirty tensioner, I imagine it could slap hard enough to make a knocking sound. Once you build oil pressure in the tensioner I could see the sound going away, which is very typical of timing chains on 22r motors. But overall you should be hearing a ticking sound from the front cover. Best advice I can give you is to take off your valve cover and check your chain when it is stone cold. Take a flashlight and peer down at your guides to see what condition they are in. Excessive slop in the chain or worn and broken guides are your signal to go ahead and replace that chain asap.
The gauges on these trucks/4runners are not very accurate, your description sounds like a typical oil pressure guage from these years.

 

[moparvwfreak]

alright. i will do that. and maybe install a proper oil pressure guage just to see what my OP is sitting at. i just cant afford this thing to blow up on my right now. everything else i own, except my jeep, is broken. time to get a VC gasket and adjust the valves while i am in there