Timing Cover Gasket Replaced, Here Are The Pics

[LoneWolf3574]

Okay, guys, I know I promised pictures of the oil cover gasket change and while I’m at its that I did. A quick review of the issue leading up to the work done can be found here – https://www.ramforum.com/threads/found-the-leak-gonna-fix-it-but-what-else.157650/

Parts List w/ Sources:

RockAuto

• Felpro, Water Pump Gasket, 35760, $2.95
• Felpro, Oil Pan Gasket, OS30750R, $39.79
• Felpro, Timing Cover Gasket, TCS46169, $31.99
• Mahle/Clevite, Connecting Rod Bearing, Standard Size, CB1808P, $6.15 ea, $49.20 total
• Melling, Timing Set, 3-704S, $70.79
• Melling, Oil Pump, M342-375S, $93.79
• Mopar, Ground Strap, Engine to Heat Shield, 56043078AD, $11.55

Summit Racing Equipment

• ARP, Rod Bolt, ARP-2476301, $121.99
• ARP, Assembly Lubricant, ARP-100-9909, $7.99

Amazon

• OEMTOOLS, Long Reach Harmonic Balancer/Pulley Installer, 27306, $43.69 (nobody had this to rent or sell locally and none of my family or friends had one I could borrow).
• Wix, Air Filter, 42725FR, $29.69
• Wix, Oil Filter, 51085XP, $7.59

O’Reilly Automotive

• Zerex, 1 Gallon Yellow Concentrate Coolant/Antifreeze, G05, $19.99 ea, $39.98 total

Walmart

• Walmart, 1 Gallon Distilled Water, $0.80 ea, $1.60 total

Amsoil

• Amsoil, 1 Gallon Synthetic Motor Oil, XL 5W-20, $28.35 (I already had 3qts on hand)

The total cost came out to $580.94 less shipping and tax. So I went a "bit" over my budget, but I believe it will pay dividends in the long run.

So, without further delay, here are the photos. These first few are just some reference photos; you can ignore these if you like.









So it looks like the leaking coolant made it all the way to the back of the engine.

 

[LoneWolf3574]

Here, my son and I are trying to figure out how to get the pan off without damaging it. Here's a tip, unbolt the pickup tube from the oil pump, twist and wiggle it, then it comes off pretty easy. Lifting the engine some if you can safely do it helps as well. When we loosened this cross member, the frame relaxed and shifted outward ~1/8". Prior to my purchasing the truck, it had been in two accidents, one on the driver's side front and one on the passenger side rear.

Here we got the timing cover off and as you can see, the leak was on the driver side. The pitting wasn't too bad and I cleaned up any peaks I found with some jewelers files I have. The gasket just disintegrated as we removed the timing cover. Overall, I don't think the varnishing looks bad for a 172k mile truck.

You can see the pitting carried over into the timing cover. Everything cleaned up very nicely before we put it back together.

 

[LoneWolf3574]

A look at the all-original crank and connecting rods. There's the pickup tube bolt that made the pan difficult to get out for us.

So everything looks pretty heavily varnished, but it looks like oil changes were done on a fairly regular basis. The pictures make it look worse than it really was, a rag and some light pressure and it all just comes right off.

I've got the engine at TDC, but the dark links were not lined up. We were scratching our heads for a bit on that one. Rotate the engine back a few turns and it lines up, no worries.

 

[LoneWolf3574]

If you look at the pin retention hole for the tensioner on the left, you can see it was doing its job and taking up the slack from the chain stretching over time when you compare it to the new timing set.

The new timing set was a bit difficult for me to get on as I have never done one before in my entire life, but my son was a great help and we managed to slide it into place after a couple of tries.

A couple of views of the new ARP connecting rod bolts. Plenty of assembly lube used on those bearings before those bolts were torqued down. We took our sweet time doing that.

 

[LoneWolf3574]

Cleaned up those water pump bolts before installing them AND remembered to put teflon thread sealant on them before installation

We found that when you install the crank pulley, a spacer is necessary to get the installer tool nut far enough out to press into place, we used 4 large flat washers and 2 large nuts before we started torquing it down. Getting to 195 ft-lb is no easy feat, I thought we were close a couple of times only to turn it another 1/2 turn before the torque wrench clicked.

Almost done.

 

[LoneWolf3574]

All the connecting rod bearings looked like this, almost brand new. The upper half is from the connecting rod and the lower is from the cap.

All the spark plugs we pulled (just 8 of them) looked pretty good as well. With just ~22k on them, the gap was .042 to .046.


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[LoneWolf3574]

Everything is back together and having driven my truck all week, it feels as though it is idling smoother and has more giddyup. Of course, this all could just be me since I was driving my little blue Hyundai Accent for the last 3 weeks as I waited for parts to arrive, so take it as you will.

I've have topped off the coolant once already, about 1.5 quarts, but I'm attributing that to air that was still left in the system after I burped it. A thing to note, when you squeeze your hose line to push the air out, make sure you squeeze the correct side otherwise you end up puking around 3qts of fresh, new coolant on the ground when that big air bubble pushes its way through the radiator after the thermostat opens.

For those who haven't done this before and were wondering how to or you're just curious about the procedure I used to prime the oil pump and system, I removed half of the plugs, pushed the accelerator to the floor, turned the engine over 3 times for 15-30 seconds each time.

 

[jmd4100]

Everything is back together and having driven my truck all week, it feels as though it is idling smoother and has more giddyup. Of course, this all could just be me since I was driving my little blue Hyundai Accent for the last 3 weeks as I waited for parts to arrive, so take it as you will.

I've have topped off the coolant once already, about 1.5 quarts, but I'm attributing that to air that was still left in the system after I burped it. A thing to note, when you squeeze your hose line to push the air out, make sure you squeeze the correct side otherwise you end up puking around 3qts of fresh, new coolant on the ground when that big air bubble pushes its way through the radiator after the thermostat opens.

For those who haven't done this before and were wondering how to or you're just curious about the procedure I used to prime the oil pump and system, I removed half of the plugs, push the accelerator to the floor, turned the engine over 3 times for 15-30 seconds each time.

Job well done LoneWolf! I'm thinking about replacing the timing chain on mine as my friend did on his and some weird noise went away. I have that same noise. It sounds kind of like the mds in engaged even when its not... easiest I can explain it. You've been a great help thanks so much!!!

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[LoneWolf3574]

Job well done LoneWolf! I'm thinking about replacing the timing chain on mine as my friend did on his and some weird noise went away. I have that same noise. It sounds kind of like the MDS in engaged even when its not... easiest I can explain it. You've been a great help thanks so much!!!

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Be certain to use plenty of assembly lube, you don't want to wipe those bearings the first time you startup. I even used it on the timing set and oil pump cog as a precaution, though it probably wasn't necessary.

 

[jmd4100]

Be certain to use plenty of assembly lube, you don't want to wipe those bearings the first time you startup. I even used it on the timing set and oil pump cog as a precaution, though it probably wasn't necessary.

Will do thanks!

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