Your thoughts on the Toyota 22R

OK...in my Phoenix Project story I wrote:

"Even if it's not overheating, the carbureted 22R four-cylinder is a weak excuse for an engine in my experience.  The thing is low-powered, has a noisy valvetrain, and the carburetor can't compensate for changes in altitude.  The 22R-E is an improvement, but it's still a slug and has a noisy valvetrain."

Since you know my take, what's yours?  Have you had a 22R (or R-E) last forever, or have you had that engine die several times on the vine?

I feel about the 22R and R-E the same way I feel about the band U2...it's good, but extremely overrated.

Kevin Blumer  

I have to say that I like the 22R-E.  I think they're reliable, last a long time, and they work much better on the trail at crawling speed than the V6 boat anchor that was available from 1988-1995. The 22R-E has better low-end torque than the V6.  

You've had a bad experience with the 22R.  Regarding the 22R-E, I think you should take the advice of the ad that says, "Try it!  You'll like it!"  
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Hmmm...

Low end torque is great for the trail, but I think even a 22R-E will be a slug on the freeway that leads to the trail.

If I had a 22R-E that ran well, didn't overheat, and was reliable I might form a new opinion about the 22R and 22R-E.

For now, we'll just say that the jury is out.  

Well, maybe the 22RE isn't impressive in an off-roader, but in a 2WD street truck (I know, heresy in this forum) they're plenty spunky. I know some of them were prone to break timing chains sometimes, but other than that, as far as I know, they have a rock-solid reputation.  

I have a 22R in my 82 crawler that has been extremely reliable and is excellent on the trail other than lacking the power to rip up a snowy hill climb. On a rare occasion it loads-up in high altitude and once in a while I'll get on a angle it doesn't' like.

As far as the street goes.. not to bad in town but as soon as I hit a climb I'm in the slow lane with big rigs fighting to get around me.
I'm not to worried about it's street performance, I built it for the trails, unfortunately there is a lot of pavement between here and there!

BTW it has 232k miles on the original motor, 5:29 gears, 37" tires and a whole lot of extra steel welded on for protection.  
--
Rory "Rockalot" Huber
Creation Nonstop Design & Photography
www.creationnonstop.com
rig: www.rockalot.net
fab: www.4x4beast.com

I have an '83 Yota 4x4 pickup with over 250,000 original miles on the 22R.  The odometer broke at 193,999 about ten years ago. It uses no oil and has never had anything but a waterpump and routine maintenance.  I got the truck brand new and still use it regularly.  The transmission, however, is another long story....!  And then there's the rust problem...!  

Any of you guys ever owned or driven a 22R turbo? It was only offered for a split-second before the 3.0 V6 came out, but an interesting engine nonetheless.  

Its the very yuppy editors such as yourself Mr Bloomers, that made me cancel my subscript to 4 wheeler mag.keep on driving your jeep Mr Rogers ( I bet thats what you drive).I got a Toy with less than 6000 dollars in parts that will leave you and yours on the side of the trail,just like I left your mag.Used to be for the reader ,now its for the yuppys.You obviously know nothing of 4 wheeling or motors for that matter,why dont you go back to writing for Glamor magazine where the readers can relate to your biased uneducated forum circus.I feel the same way about your mag as i do you,ALL TALK.  

Hey vtowncrawler...

If you're going to bash me, at least give yourself some credibility by proving you can spell my name correctly.

I didn't get my opinion from sitting around doing nothing. I arrived there by driving, working on, and living with a real-live (well, it lived some of the time) 22R. I've turned the wrenches late at night, and I've been to the smog inspections. I've browsed the catalogs to find out what performance parts would offer the most benefits for the buck. I did all this on a college kid's budget. During this same time, I would buy magazines at the grocery store and would occasionally subscribe. I wasn't a magazine guy. I was a reader and an enthusiast--and I still am.

As for the yuppie comment, nothing could be further from the truth.

Yes, I made some mistakes working on that engine. I drove unknowingly with a clogged radiator, a goof that cost me not one, but two engines. Another screw-up was turning the camshaft while the head was bolted to the block. I found out that's a great way to bend valve stems. At the time, I was used to old-style American iron where it didn't matter how much you turned the camshaft with the heads bolted up. Ooooops! Live and learn.

On the other hand, there were other problems that arose without any screw-ups on my part. One such problem was a faulty connection of a fuel cutoff solenoid, a part of the emission control system. The bad connection cut off the fuel completely and didn't switch it back on again. The truck died on me several times this way. I also had several threads strip out of the head, both in the exhaust port and on the cam bearing caps. These were successfully repaired with Heli-coils.

These problems, both those that were my fault and those that weren't, might have been easy to brush aside if the engine had decent performance, but it didn't. Talk all the trash you want, but you can't deny that the 22R and 22R-E are both slow. By the time you gear them low enough for good off-road performance (4.88's with 33's and 5.29's with 35's) they suffer badly on the top end. The freeway isn't any fun when the mirror is full of rapidly-approaching white lights.

To anyone else with an opinion here: your opinion might differ from mine, and your experience might differ from mine. That's OK. Please express yourselves in a respectful manner and leave the personal insults out of it. No personal insults came from my end.

Thank you,

Kevin Blumer  

The first truck I learned to drive was an 84 yota 4x4 with the 22R and 5spd, It had 4.10 gears with 33s and the power level was ok it could get out of its own way wHen you needed it to.  The only work I did was at 310000 miles I pulled the head and had it checked over at a machine shop and replaced cam bearings and coolant system.  That was back in 02 it now has over 400000 miles and running like it did back in 91 when I first drove it(seems easier to turn now though then it did back then.)   And about the turbo ones I have only seen one of those and it was I believe an 86 crew cab 4x4, also the only crew cab I have seen.  

Buckit,

I'm glad you've had a good experience with your 22R. I have to confess some jealousy--if I hadn't killed my 22R so many times, I might have hung onto the Phoenix after all.

Is your '84 Toy 4x4 also your daily driver?

--Kevin  

i had! but my 22R turbo need to be rebuilt. and i don't know how am i gonna do it. i just keep on looking for mechanic who can fix that part. and also the radiator thing that is at the engine i also need to fixed it. what a bloody head aching things i am going to do. well but i need to finish it.

hiruishi | miyata
drive safely and avoid driving when you're drunk  

Have you contacted LC Engineering? They've got a ton of knowledge about the 22R-series motors.

You might also look into swapping a 2RZ or 3RZ four-cylinder in place of your 22R-TE. You'll need to change your transmission bellhousing to match the RZ engine, and you'll have other things (engine mounts, wiring, etc.) to attend to, but you'll end up with a better, newer engine. Marlin Crawler has a top of info with this swap, and even makes a conversion bellhousing that lets you run an R-series transmission behind the RZ engine.