Front cover removal tips ?

[12Ounce]

I like #2 permatex for this application.

Yep, I agree, torqueing up the balancer bolt is the last step.

I have made a bolt-keeper out of cardboard copies of the two gaskets overlaid. This helps me keep up with which bolts go where ... and which ones have to be pre-mounted in the cover.

Someone mentioned putting nylon thread wrap on some of the bolts. ??? Which ones? (Thought I'd just do 'em all.)

Thanks for the tips.

[DRW1000]

Originally Posted by 12Ounce

Yes, I am taking pictures .. but will depend on someone else to publish them, as I don't know how.

Today, I got maybe two hours of work in, and have finished the "disassembly". The crankshaft pulley/balancer is removed, the front cover is removed. Shop towels are stuffed into place to prevent debris falling into oil pan. Once the water pump was removed ... most of the 'bad" work was done. I do not plan to remove the oil pan. But two oil pan screws had to be removed to release the front cover. The "hidden" socket screw is 6 mm BTW.

Tomorrow starts the clean-up and reassembly.

Are you planning on replacing the water pump?..............since you're there anyway.

It's always good when the disassembly goes well.

[12Ounce]

Yep, the old pump's got near 200 kmiles on it ... so I don't want to push it further.

I'm also replacing all "hard to reach" cooling hoses in the area.

It took me 8 hrs to get this far ... I don't know how good that is, but it's done.

[kevink1955]

Originally Posted by 12Ounce

.

Someone mentioned putting nylon thread wrap on some of the bolts. ??? Which ones? (Thought I'd just do 'em all.)

Thanks for the tips.

I think it's the top rear bolt that goes into the water jacket but I took your approch, I put a few wraps of teflon tape on the threads of all the studs then a light coat of teflon pipe sealer over the tape. I also covered the unthreaded part of the studs with antiseize compound so they would not seize to the cover.

I had a few that where very tight in the cover, just lucky they did not break off in the cover.

[12Ounce]

Well, I'm back on the road!

Have about 400miles pulling trailer since gasket replacement. So far ... so good (knock on wood!).

[95'Spendstar]

Originally Posted by kevink1955

Before you pull the crank balancer all the way off make note of it's position (mine had a notch that I pointed straight up) then remove the cam sensor and note the position of the "vane" that spins under the cover.you also neeed to make a scribe a mark to line the sensor up with the timing cover.

I haven't removed the cam sensor. Pending nothing changed position on removal, wouldn't everything line up correctly once the front cover is mated back to the block? Or am I crazy ?
Also my Felpro gasket kit came with a new front seal for the crankshaft. Is this a no brainer as to whether I should change out the old one?
12Ounce, I'd really like to see those pictures.

[kevink1955]

Originally Posted by 95'Spendstar

I haven't removed the cam sensor. Pending nothing changed position on removal, wouldn't everything line up correctly once the front cover is mated back to the block? Or am I crazy ?
Also my Felpro gasket kit came with a new front seal for the crankshaft. Is this a no brainer as to whether I should change out the old one?

I do not know what year you have but on my 96 the cam sensor is on the top of the timing cover and is driven off the cam gear. I do not think you could pull the cover with it still in place and even if you could the gears are helical so the sensor would rotate. No way could you get it back in the right position.

Yes I would change the crank seal.

Good luck, It's a back breaking job but not to bad if you take your time.

[12Ounce]

95'spendstar,
You are welcome to the pictures ... the surest, and maybe the quickest, way is to send me a postal (snail mail) address in a private message .... keep in mind my Winnie is a "99 and the engine front has been rearranged a bit, but the info will probably still be beneficial.

[95'Spendstar]

Welllll ! I've finally gotten to the job, thru the job and my last great act of defiance was to tighten the crank pully bolts and finally the crank balancer bolt with anticipation of loading up the fluids and turning the key butttttt... I twisted the head right off of one of the pully bolts so I figured I'd go with 3 bolts on the pully. Damn if I didn't strip a second bolt so now I'm looking at pulling the balancer off again and drilling out the headless bolt and finding all new bolts to put in this thing.
Any better ideas guys/gals? This is a 95 and I know these bolts are old but they sure didn't look soft and it didn't feel like I put that much torque on them.

[kevink1955]

Guess you do not know your own strength. Is there a chance you can position the crank so you can drill the broken bolt out without removing the balancer. If so I would use a a left cut drill, there is a good chance the left cut drill will spin the broken stub out while you are drilling it.

It's a shame you got this far and ran into this at the end. How many hours do you have into this so far?

[95'Spendstar]

Kevin I'd say I've probably got around 25 hours on this thing and that includes dropping the Y pipe and pullng the oil pan off to look at the pick up tube (it was clean).
I think I'll go ahead and pull the balancer off and work on the headless bolt since that was one of the easier steps I'd dealt with the 1st time.
As someone mentioned earlier this is a beast of a job and your and everyone else's posts have been helpful but there is no replacement for experience and I believe I've learned alot about this particular excercise and am still learning.

Hours: 25
Parts: $15
Labour: $0
Frustration Level: Priceless

[12Ounce]

You may want to check a parts counter and see if the harmonic wheel has been upgraded to the later model design. My '99's harmonic balancer wheel came off and went back on as a one-piece unit.

[95'Spendstar]

[quote=kevink1955]I do not know what year you have but on my 96 the cam sensor is on the top of the timing cover and is driven off the cam gear. I do not think you could pull the cover with it still in place and even if you could the gears are helical so the sensor would rotate. No way could you get it back in the right position.

I removed the front cover with the cps attached, removed the oil pump and inspected and repacked it, cleaned the front cover along with the engine.
I placed the front cover along with the new gasket back in place and started bolting it back together with your quote in the back of my mind figuring I'd have to pull it all apart again to repair what ever damage I'd done to the timing chain area but to my surprise it started right up and the engine sounds good. Granted the creature hasn't been put on the road yet and I'm sure things could be alot different out there, but I'll find that out Saturday.

12ounce, I priced a harmonic balancer at the zone today and was quoted $123 but I didn't take a look at it. Are you saying that the newer ones have the serpentine pully already attached?

Anyway, thanks to all who contributed to this post. You all were very helpful and I could not have done this without you.

[12Ounce]

On my '99: I removed the single balancer bolt that attaches pulley (and balancer) to crankshaft .... and, using a puller, removed pulley and balancer assembly as one unit. This required removing the sub-frame bolts on the RH side and lowering the engine a bit. I don't remember if the pulley was separable or not (I'm going to look at my photos). EDIT UPDATE: After revewing my photos, I still don't know. I can see that the crankshaft position toothed-wheel is removable ...but not sure about belt pulley.

My pulley had a couple of "spoke-openings" that allowed inserting a 1/2" diameter rod ... thus locking pulley to engine-and-frame ... to allow easy torqueing/removal of the balancer-to-crankshaft bolt. Nothing else was required to prevent crankshaft from turning.

[kevink1955]

Glad it worked out, let us know how it goes after the test drive. It's been a long haul, good luck.

It's a tough job but at least the parts are cheap!!