First time Timing Chain cover seal replacement

[CA650]

thanks all
I did oil the chain
I will try a little more to seat that dampner a little more
and i’ll put the fuel pump in tomorrow

appreciate the torque specs (again)

 

[CA650]

gr8scott and m_m70

thanks again for sending those torque specs (multiple times) I was ready for them today and made some more progress.

that damp er was nowhere near on far enough and after you posted a picture of the tool you used earlier in this thread I realized that my puller had all the parts to push this thing and I inched it forward smoothly.

couldn’t get 80lbs on the main crank bolt as the engine kept rotating but i’ll look for some technique for that, maybe throwing it in gear or something idk.

anyway the pulleys seem to line up. i’m waiting for a matching water pump pulley to go woth the new crank pulley.

looks like this now

 

[CA650]

back together again!
thanks everyone - really appreciate the advice.

it fired right up, only problem is the new alternator I put in is either not connected properly or its broken idk since i’m not getting about 12v in the cab now but I can sort that out this weekend. the one on there worked so I can fall back to that if I need to.

again thank you all very much. that was a job I was not looking forward to at all, I search for someone I could trust to do it for me but in the end I’m glad I did it at least once and I have a lot better understanding of what’s in there now.

It was a lot of work:
- new timing chain and gear set
- new timing chain cover
- new seals, new timing chain cover
- new dampener
- new alternator (new one is not working yet)
- new pulleys (back to stock sizes)
- new fan (back to stock shape/volume)
- new belts ($60 wtf happened to the price of belts?)
- stripped and painted the water pump
- new stainless pump and cover bolt set
- new/replaced all of the body panel bolts and clips for the grill
- discovered a crank seal in backwards and a mismatch between the timing chain gear set and the fuel pump eccentric
- painted the water pump cover
- replaced the thermostat seal and painted the thermostat housing
- few misc. other things... replaced all the header bolts (there were multiple types)

looks really good.

https://youtu.be/sLFhdP6DzNA
and here
https://youtu.be/iIIp-3KSJAI

 

[CA650]

Update - 18months from completing this job I just blew out a gasket behind the water pump someplace and I’m now doing it over again.

This time I bought a new water pump, 160 degree thermostat and a new thermostat housing; new set of fel-pro gaskets.

I’m not sure what went wrong but radiator fluid gushed out the bottom of the water pump plate.

I took it to my shop and the guys there said I probably failed to tighten the bolts enough on the water pump and recommended replacing it and the thermostat and this time suggested using some gasket sealant in top of the gaskets as well.

I’m annoyed since it’s a lot of work to repeat and I thought I was pretty careful the last time.

 

[CA650]

Btw that brand new fan already has some rust on the rivets. I’m going to look back and see where I bought that. It came shiny new and black and all the rivets are a little rusty. I’m unimpressed with it

 

[DirtDonk]

Why the 160° thermostat? I did that years ago and regretted it. Almost like you didn’t have a heater because the coolant never got warm enough to do much in that regard.
And the engine never really got up to its desired operating temperature.
Are you having some problem that you need a cooler thermostat?

 

[76BroncoPete]

Glad I found this thread. In the process of a very similar project. Lots of good info here.

 

[CA650]

Why the 160° thermostat? I did that years ago and regretted it. Almost like you didn’t have a heater because the coolant never got warm enough to do much in that regard.
And the engine never really got up to its desired operating temperature.
Are you having some problem that you need a cooler thermostat?

Thats what's been in the truck and I've never used the heat. I have a 180 too if I want to swap it later. I'm taking the truck to Truckee next season so maybe i will..

BUT... something really bad happened today. I was putting the front end back together after replacing the water pump.. I had a nice looking new water pump, some good seals and i coated the seals with honda bond and began bolting everything back together... btw honda bond is awesome. I did not put any gasket sealer on the gaskets the last time i replaced them and i just had a failure of the gaskets at the water pump...

anyway, i bought a new water pump this time and new gaskets, and the honda bond.... removed the old stuff... put it all back together.... and..............

I was tightening in a crisscross pattern, happy with everything when one of the long bolts... that goes through the lower bracket on the power steering pump made a pop sound and it pulled right back out of the hole....

it had what looked like an old heli-coil wrapped around it... :-( I am really really sad.. I think I'm f******kd.

I think the engine block had a couple heli-coils in there from the PO stripping bolt holes. I don't know of any way to fix this problem.

Right now the honda bond is drying in the driveway and making a nice seal between the new water pump and the new timing chain cover and all of that probably will probably have to be removed right down to the block and some new heli-coil put in or I don't know. if the block is hosed up with multiple bolt holes already repaired with heli-coils maybe its time for a new motor.

so sad. I don't suppose here is a quick fix to this?

Its 3:15 on a Friday and I just drank a 22oz sapporo. fck

 

[DirtDonk]

Well that does suck a big green apple! Not sure about a fix, but plenty of members here have run into snapped off bolts in this area before, so maybe they've got some insight for you as well.

Good luck.

Paul

 

[CA650]

Well I checked the depth of the bolt hole and it seems to be 3 1/2” deep with a 5/16 - 18 thread.

I bought a .69 cent 3 1/2” bolt and I got it to bite a little so I’m going to try that. I torqued everything to 30lbs except that bolt which I stopped at 20lbs.

They all have lock washers on them too. I’ll see what happens. If I have another leak I’ll have to strip everything g to the block and check and repair all the block threads.

Im tempted to work on a separate engine rebuild in parallel for the day when it’s time to do that anyway. I’d like to keep my headers and my AOD and some other parts so j might start shopping 302 compatible stuff.. i have dual gas tanks and I’ve been dreading trying to sort that out with EFI

 

[DirtDonk]

Not a bad plan to have a backup, but the fact that it even took 20lbs of torque is at least a good sign. But if that's a bolt that goes through the water jacket, maybe some sealer would have been a good idea.
But since it's done I'd hate to recommend removing it to put sealant in it and then have the threads go south!

Crossing fingers for no leaks!

Paul

 

[CA650]

Paul, It is the long bolt at the bottom right lower when facing the engine from the front so its the bolt that goes through EVERYTHING and holds the lower bracket of the power steering pump too. I did coat it with Honda Bond before I put it in so IDK. I did 30lbs on all the other bolts and I'll check them again in a week. I drove it around some today, saw a few drips from the lower radiator hose, I think the metal hose clamp probably cut into the hose some there; but no other drips.

I'm up and running - I did use the 160 thermostat, I do have a 180 if I want to swap at some point.

I have what I think is an original iron water pump that probably is still good if someone would like that and the iron thermostat housing;

i replaced the water pump just because and the new one is aluminum and so is the timing plate cover so hopefully they are sealed well enough.