I got it started... (1 Viewer)

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Joined
Jan 7, 2006
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Location
Tucson, AZ
In culmination of rebuilding my engine over the past year I turned the key this past Friday. To my complete amazement it fired right up and began rumbling away. There were a few issues:

1. A whitish smoke began emanating off various engine parts, but then dissapated after about 10 minutes. Since I had painted the block, manifolds, EGR cooler, etc I expect the smoke was from the new paint so no worries.

2. There was an intemittant rumble and shake, but after swapping the #3 and #6 plug wires to their proper locations this went away. I had put the plug wires on the night before using a cheap fading flashlight. Yes this was a stupid and easily avoidable mistake--so much for work hardening the cam lobes upon initial start up.

3. A fairly significant oil leak from the Oil Cooler, but after tightening the bolts down the leak stopped. Same for a slight leak from the bottom radiator hose.

Then I went back and forth adjusting the timing and the idle speed and finally got it settled at 7 degrees BTDC at around 650 rpm ( I rebuilt the carb also).

Now for the serious problem. I have a bad oil leak from the timing cover. I went back and tightened the bolts several times, but to no avail. Now the gasket is starting to extrude out and is probably split and the timing cover itself is probably dimpled at the bolt holes.

I did read precautions on this site about not screwing in the cam oiler nozzle too far and though the machinist actually did this part I did have a look at it and it did not appear to be in too far. It stuck out about 2 cm, just as it was when I disassembled the engine.

So, does anyone have any advice at this point? I had no idea the cam gear got so much oil, it is practically streaming out of the timing cover. Is this just a split or faulty gasket or is there something really wrong that would allow so much oil to be flowing into the timing gear area.

Unfortunately I know I will now have to drain and remove the radiator, (what a mess, and probably lose a lot of my pristine coolant that I put in) then pull the fan and crank pully to get at the timing gear cover.

Any comments or insights as to how I can prevent this mishap again. I'd sure hate to go through the whole process of replacing the timing gear gasket just to have it leak like hell again.

Thanks to all, especially MarkW and JimC, for your excellent advice and guidance throughout this project. I'll post some pics soon.

Matt
 
How about making your thread title more descriptive, like "Leaking timing cover after complete rebuild"?
 
The timing cover uses a couple different sizes of bolts. Did you get the right ones in the right spot? And for clarification is it leaking from the front main behind the pulley or behind the cover itself?
 
leaky cover fix

i had the same problem after replacing the timing cover seal and gasket, it leaked badly when running.

Easy fix though. The timing cover has different lenght bolts. I had the a couple timing cover bolts in the wrong positions around the cover, DAHHHH, thus a bolt or 2 bottomed out allowing the leak arounds the cover. The leak was at the top of the cover and would only leak while running the engine, I guess because oil is being thrown everywhere in side the cover when running.
check and make sure you have the right size bolts in the right positions around the cover. SORvshown a good picture which bolts in which holes. Hope this helps

Good luck

mark
 
The timing cover uses a couple different sizes of bolts. Did you get the right ones in the right spot? And for clarification is it leaking from the front main behind the pulley or behind the cover itself?

I will need to double check on the bolt sizes. The leak is coming from where the timing cover mates to the timing plate. It is not coming from the oil seal around the crank.

Matt
 
timing gear oiler

I went through this problem twice (long story). It could be your problem if it is protruding out the back of the plate. But, also listent to the guys about the various bolt length. If you do have to remove the harmonic balancer and the timing gear cover, we were successful in using a big screwdriver to hold everything throught the fuel pump hole to the gears. Also, you can heat the timing gear in the oven to get it on the shaft.
 

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