Yesterday I took the day off work and did some long awaited maintenence to my truck. I performed a valve adjustment (pretty straight forward procedure), replaced a broken motor mount, and tabbed my KDP. It hadn't even started working its way out after 237K, so I guess I'm lucky. I had a bit of sheet aluminum laying around so I made my own tab and ground it to shape with a belt sander. It was a cost free procedure other than the $40 I spent on a timing cover gasket and a new front seal.

For those who are putting it off like I did for so long, get on it. Killing the KDP probably would have been a 2 - 2.5 hour procedure (including making my own tab) if I hadn't been taking care of any other issues along with it. I would kill 3 KDPs before I changed one headgasket on ANYTHING!!! It's not as big of a deal as people make it out to be. I had the entire timing cover open and ready to begin on the KDP in less than 45 minutes.

I know there are those of you who still have work to do.

 

Did my 98 today , 4 hours put new hoses on and did some cleaning . Something I wouldn't want to do everyday though. Pin was 1/8 out and had a hard time beating it back in. One mistake I made was starting the truck to move it in the garage just before starting the job , oil would not stop running down on the gasket surface as I was trying to put the cover back on . Should of let it warm up then maybe the oil would of totally drained off , I had no way of knowing of all the little oil holding slots. lol Just hope the ultra grey and new gasket wern't affected by it . Also a question , what did they use from the factory for the gasket ????? Mine had a gasket and some ultra grey only on thecover side of gasket. I,m thinking it may have been opened before ???

 

Cummins gave me some of the grey stuff once... so *shrug*

 

Mine was the same way... only on the cover side. When I put it back together I used the orange silicone gasket sealer. I put it on both sides of the gasket. I've never had anything but luck with the orange stuff.

 

Me and my dad did mine last weekend. It took about 2 hours but it was easy I bought new timing cover gasker and crank seal and made my own tab out of a piece of sawzall blade, kdp was out 1/8 inch on 84,000 miles. I am glad its tabed. It was an easy job.

 

I never did get mine to go back to flush with the casting. The tab bent slightly when I tightened the bolt. The bolt did seat and it does have locktight on it. And, I know the pin is "trapped".