3rz Broken Timing Chain Vibration Damper/Guide

I was removing the head on my 3RZ FE 2.7l and I accidentally broke the right side Timing chain guide. It is only the plastic part of the top. Has anyone had this issue and what did they do to resolve it.

I replaced everything under the timing cover about a year ago and would hate to have to take everything apart just for the one rail that is held on by two bolts.

I am not sure I am comfortable with gluing the piece back on. Maybe it is ok as is until I get a chance to get back in there and do it.

Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks

 

I wanted to post a follow up on what I did to fix the problem since I received no responses and I saw no solutions posted elsewhere by others. I think it is a good idea to let others know what you did to fix the problem or question you had so other that run into the same issues will have a viable answer.

***** INSTALLING A GUIDE RAIL WITHOUT REMOVAL OF TIMING COVER AND ALL PULLEYS ********

I had replaced my timing chain, water pump, oil pump, sprockets, guide rails about a year ago. I replaced all the components after putting about 250,000 miles on my tacoma. Iwas surprised to find limited stretch in the chain and saw negligible wear, but thought I would just put all new components to extend the life of my 1st gen Tacoma.

The upgrade did not require that I take the head off, but I was careful to make sure that the timing cover was properly sealed from leaking coolant and oil externally, but also any mix internally. Everything was a success and it ran strongly for another year. At that point I began getting a error code related to the Cylinder 3. I replaced all the injectors and new coil packs, but still was getting an error code on that specific cylinder. So I thought it might be time to replace the head gasket and head.

 

Continued...

While taking the head off, I snapped off the top part of the plastic rail that guide the timing chain to the upper sprocket of the cam sprocket. This was the reason for posting the post. I had replaced the timing chain, cover and all the components that go with it a year earlier. Knowing all the of components that you have to remove to get in there and remove the timing chain cover, I definitely did not want to go through that process if I did not have too. Of courst these things happen when you are expecting to have a simple job become all the more difficult b having to spend considerable hours more from a simple mistake.

The timing chain guide is attached to the block by two bolts that reside beneath (inside) the timing chain cover. So I though I would figure out a way to replace the guide without going through the added hours of removing all the timing cover components. Especially because of the fact there were two bolts that were required to replace the rail as a whole.
I would say that it is probably not impossible to take the two mounting bolts off with the cover on, it would probably take hours to do and knuckle busting.

So to save sanity.... the solution. Buy a new guide rail and do the following....

 

(I also want to state that I replaced the rail with the head off as well as having the oil pan off.)

Press tab indicated at the area 1 to push beyond the metal cutout you see at point 2. You can then press the plastic towards the back of the engine, tilting it so that you can pull it up and remove it.

 

Once the rail is popped out of it's groove you can push the top ( 4) towards the rear of the engine to where the metal part of the rail connects to the block (point 5).

At that point you should be able to pull up and remove the plastic portion of the rail.

I did this both on the New part I bought and also the existing portion of rail that was broken on the engine. It was easy to see what you had to do to get the plastic part of the rail off and on, by practicing on the new part.

 

To install the plastic part of the rail onto your existing metal part that is connected to the block, do the following. Press rail down at angle with the bottom of the plastic rail againg the metal it attaches to and the top part angled towards the rear of the engine. The plastic tap labeled 6 will bottom out at the area labeled above and then you tilt the top portion towards the front of the engine. At this point you may want to take a long screwdriver and push at the bottom part of the plastic guide so that when you pull the plastic guide up, the tab indicated at point 7 will secure itself behind the metal part of the rail seen in the photo above.

 

Once the bottom is secured, pop the plastic rail back into the tab seen above left and boom.... You saved yourself alot of aggravation and time taking off pulleys, timing cover and a lot of components.

Another note: Putting timing chains and cams in.

I put cams in as directed by the repair manual. The dots on the back of the cams are important to line up together while on Top dead center( TDC ) cylinder 1. THe important part of the timing chain is that the crank is in TDC cylinder one position and the dots on the back of the cam are together at TDC cylinder 1. The dots on the timing chain itself may not line up exactly unless you are doing a new install. On a new install, you can make the marking on the chain match the bottom mark on the crank and the center mark on the cam sprocket. When the engine runs those marks may be off if you compare them on cam sprocket and crank sprocket. The important thing to note is that there is how many links to the left or right the mark is on the crank and make sure you offset it the same on the camshaft.

Engine: 3rzfe 2.7l
268,000 miles at head replacement.

Repair at your own risk. This is just a guide of what worked for me on my truck. Hopefully this may save you some extra work and time. My truck is running great and code is gone. Looking forward to another 260k miles.

Cheers!!!

 

Any updates on this still working good? I be damned if the same thing didn’t happen to me today lol

 

Nice write up and I hope that others learn from this.