need advice. 150 k miles on the first timing chain. not looking forward to the work but... also have rusty oil dip stick maybe a head gasket? sounds like a good break down job to me. any pointers?

 

i just did my timing chain on my truck bc the timing chain cover gasket was leaking and i decide to chain the timing set while i had the cover off. and my chain had alot of slack in the chain to only have 63,000 miles. it not that hard of a job just takes some time

 

pic over the dip stick

t-chain easy,,,, one tip is have a bucket ready when to take out a couple of the time chain cover bolts out they have coolet behide them

 

thanx guys. will get the picture going of dip stick. i chk out the sticky for the timing chain doesnt look fun. just did water pump not to long ago so hopen nott to disturb it. i got the coolet thing, anything else i should know? thinken about getting parts this week so as to be ready next week. saw something about oil pump drop in pressure on the scrilla. mine drops at idle to low end then rise back to middle when driving. figure clean the intake on pump. any takes on that?

 

You must remove the water pump to change the T-chain.

My advice is to turn the crank over to get the truck to #6 TDC, that way the dots on the timing chains will face each other exactly.

Post up pics if you have questions, this forum is pretty active. You can just about post a question, crack open a beer, take a few swigs, and have an answer.

 

your recent water pump replacement was good practice for the timing chain.
redo everything you did, then remove harmonic balancer and about 8-10 more bolts.

on the oil pump, if you've got high mileage on the engine, cleaning the screen may not change anything. its also possible that replacing the pump might not help either. but - if i went to the trouble of dropping the pan, i'd replace the pump. a melling high volume is only $40-50. if the rear main is leaking, its a good time to replace it too. its a 2 piece seal that's fairly easy to change.

 

thanks guys. will be ready for the bolt/coolant,still no pic on dip stick work got me pin,aimforsquirels you got me rolling lol,dhvaughan really, i need to do the harmonic balancer? trying to go easy on this job. now for the tdc#6 .little help here?

 

When the timing gears are aligned dot to dot # 6 will be at TDC.
Pull the spark plugs, turn the engine over with a finger in # 6 plug hole.
When you feel compression stop and take it apart.
It will be very close to being lined up.

 

don't worry about #6 or #1 or TDC or Compression or any of that.
find the dots on the timing sprockets, rotate engine until they are dot to dot.
remove sprockets and chain as a set
DO NOT ROTATE ENGINE.
reinstall new sprockets and chain. they are keyed. only go one way.
the ONLY way you can screw up it is to rotate the engine when they are removed.

you must remove the balancer in order to remove the timing cover. not hard, just rent or buy a puller. impact gun makes it easy, otherwise its hard.

 

I did my chain last week and just this morning I cooked my serpentine belt. Looks like the crank pulley is not in line with the rest of them, so I guess the harmonic balancer wasn't tightened enough. I wrenched it on to make sure it was straight until the engine turned over, then hammered it for a while with a 1/2" impact, but not enough I guess. Spec is 130 lb.ft. When I go back to tighten it some more, is it possible to over torque it with a cheap impact?