Hi All,

I took my timing cover off over the weekend to take a look-see and fix the KDP. Good news is that it was all the IN and as far as I can tell, the cover has never been off. I guess I'll consider myself lucky for 248,000 miles. My gear housing has a built-up area around the pin so I'm making a stepped tab to fix it for good...haven't quite got it finished. So...

1. What's everyone's opinion on if I need a new timing cover gasket. Don't know for sure if the old one was leaking. But it just seems like a good idea. The old came off in one piece on the cover.

2. I've heard it's a good idea to re-torque and lok-tite the 5 bolts that hold on the housing. Where are they located? I could only see maybe 2 in my quick search after I got the cover off. I know one is behind the cam gear and almost impossible to reach.

3. I'm going to replace the crankshaft seal...anything else I should do while I'm in there?

On a side note... I had a devil of a time getting the fan hub off. My problem was holding the hub tight so that I could put enough umph into the wrench to break it loose. With the belt on, it held fine if the threads were right-handers. But for the left-handers it just spun the pulley on the belt. What I finally did was to cut a piece of my old belt about 2 inches longer than the circumference of the pulley. Then I wrapped that piece around the pulley with the 2 one inch extensions facing out face-to-face. Then I squeezed those tight with a pair of big vice grips. It held the pulley quite nicely and I was able to break the fan housing loose easily. Since my truck is an automatic, I also used this method on the crankshaft bolts.

 

Good tips there.

1. I'd go with a new gasket.
2. Not sure where all the bolts are, but I'd Loctite and torque everything you can see.
3. See #2.

 

Napa sells a timing cover gasket that's listed for non-intercooled engines only. What's the difference? Sure looks the same to me.

 

Should be exactly the same.

 

The bolts you're looking for are behind the cam gear bud....sorry....you can get to a couple of them I think, but not all...

pb....

 

Thanks. After some searching and turning of the crankshaft I found them. I was able to bend a 10mm wrench to a 45* angle and at least check to make sure the 5th bolt was tight. Got everything cleaned up last night, and today I'll go on over to Cummins Rocky Mountain and pick up the timing cover gasket. I opted not to get the gasket from Napa, since the one they had there looked like it had been left out in a rain storm. Then I'll have it all put back together tonight. No more worrying about the KDP!!