kpracing

I just had a oil leak fixed on my truck, the shop changed the front cover plate, the old one had a hole in it
they told me that somone must have droped a 8mm 1/4 socket in there because that was the size off the hole.
they also told me that they could not find anything missing by the timing gears.
now my qustion is this the KDP there fell out and went throu the cover, will the eingine still run without?

torquefan

If the dowel pin is missing, the engine will still run, but you still want to replace the dowel pin ASAP, because it keeps the gear housing perfectly indexed to the engine block. Without it, the housing is free to move slightly within the tolerance of the bolt holes, which will change the lash between the injector pump and cam gears. This may or may not cause problems, but if it does, the problems will be big ones. Best to spend a couple bucks on a dowel pin, loctite it in and tab it, then retorque all the internal housing bolts.