Well the other truck i just got took a poop also. I was just cruising down the road last night, and all of a sudden BAM!!!, the engine locked up. So i get the truck home and pulled the front cover off, and sure enough theres a mangled piece of steel between the crank and cam gear. It's not the dowel pin but the case bolt directly above the crank gear. The dowel pin already had been killed at some point, cause the case was peened around the hole. But i guess they didn't check the bolts. And thats just my luck too, cause i was going to put new radiator hoses on and fix, check on the kdp. But i guess theres no reason to now. Now i have 2 dead cummins on my hands. Although one should be up and running soon.
So everyone go out and check/locktite the case bolts.
Aaron

 

I went pale while reading this post. My outer case bolts were loose causing a leak. I'd be willing to bet that the ones inside the timing case are loose as well. How hard is it to get the cover off?

 

It's easy to get the cover off, go and buy a new front seal and install while your there. I just pullrd the radiator, fan, and fan pulley to give me plenty of room to work with. Then just pull the harmonic balancer and the case bolts to get inside.
Remove the bolts apply red locktite and retorque to 18 ft lbs, or till its tight but not too tight.
Then reassemble.

 

I would not use red loctite on those case bolts. I've seen threads pulled out because of red loctite on Cummins gear housings. Use blue or green, blue being the best for this application. The blue will prevent the bolts from vibrating out, but still makes removal possible.

Definitely put a new front seal and front cover gasket on, they are inexpensive and you only want to be in there once.

 

We use the red stuff all the time at work. It turns to liquid at about 400 degrees F.