Thomas' thread: Built not Bought

It's amazing to see. Seen this guy tonight and she's at 563k now. And the body is in amazing shape. I'll get some video of it when I can. He's confident he'll hit a million. He's religious about taking care of it so it really wouldn't surprise me if he gets there.
 
Quick question. Should there be any slack on the drivers side of the timing chain? I pulled the VC to see if I could see if a rocker arm was way off or something and I saw the chain dangling on the left side of the motor and probably would move back and forth 1-1/2" if that bolt in the front of the head wasn't in the way. I'm imagining this is my noise maker?? Luckily the guides haven't broke yet.
 
Quick question. Should there be any slack on the drivers side of the timing chain? I pulled the VC to see if I could see if a rocker arm was way off or something and I saw the chain dangling on the left side of the motor and probably would move back and forth 1-1/2" if that bolt in the front of the head wasn't in the way. I'm imagining this is my noise maker?? Luckily the guides haven't broke yet.

No you need a timing chain and guides asap
 
That's what I figured. Guess noes as good as time as any to fix it. Guess water and oil pumps are probably a wise investment at the same time too.
 
Also what's this Sleeve and seal option with the timing set? Is that necessary or is it something I won't know I need until I get mine apart?
 
Are you talking about the sleeve and seal for the harmonic balancer? If so then you only need that if your front main oil seal is leaking and that's still only if your harmonic balancer has a groove worn in it. My opinion, if you have a groove worn in your balancer then you should just replace it instead of sleeving it.

If that's not what you're talking about then I have no clue.
 
I'm guessing that's what it is. It is an option to get with the timing kits. I don't see any oil leaking around the seal so hopefully that means I'm good.
 
Well my new addition to my family showed up so as you can imagine my build has all but stopped. But I did manage to order all my timing chain replacement pieces. Went ahead and got a new water and oil pump coming as well. Hopefully I'll have it up and running this weekend. RF brake caliper is locked slam up so I'm thinking about going ahead and ordering both sides too. They are pretty rusty.
 
Welp it's now time to get this thing going. As I said a new addition to our family put a damper on things for a while (those of you with kids will understand) and only a week after the baby came I was given an offer to make a career move so that had also slowed my progress down. But now things are getting less crazy and I believe I have all the parts to do the timing chain. The truck had a cheap Haynes manual in it when I got it and it says the first step to removing the TC cover is to remove the head and oil pan. I believe I've seen this done without taking either off. Am I right in believing that?
 
Well from what I can see my guides are fine. I've done a little more reading and found taking out the 6 front pan bolts can help but I still don't see why the head would need to come off. I might go ahead and pull the pan just to see if anything is wondering around in there anyways. Thanks Tatman and oh yea, love your build. That truck is sweet. You've given me many good ideas.
 
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Made a little progress tonight. Should have it all apart tomorrow. Gotta tell ya, the breaker bar on the frame rail trick worked wonders on the crankshaft bolt.
 

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I removed and installed my timing cover without removing the head, but I did remove the oil pan, only to make it easier. Be very careful and you won't destroy the head gasket.

And the crankshaft pulley bolt, yea. I stuck a huge screwdriver through the pulley, wedged against the oil pump and literally jumped on a 2ft breaker bar. Those suckers are on there lol.
 
Yea I tried to jam up the pulley but even being a pretty big boy I couldn't budge it. The only reason I didn't do the starter trick first was my battery was dead so I felt doing it manually would be faster. So a set of jumper cables and one strike of the key later boom bolts loose. Couldn't believe it popped that easy.
 
Pull the pan. Even if your current guides are intact, the last set might not have been and that guy might not have pulled the pan either. It takes an extra 20 minutes, and it'll give you a chance to make sure there's nothing funky in the pickup and you can eyeball your bearings and crank while you're down there.

I haven't gotten a crank bolt free without doing the starter trick yet.

When you go to remove the timing cover, don't forget the "hidden bolt" in the pool of oil under the distributor gear. :thumb:
 
YES!! X2 on the hidden bolt! This is why I had to replace mine, someone broke that bolt and ruined the cover trying to drill it out.
 
I'm going to pull the pan and thanks to reading through this website I have been reminded numerous times about the hidden bolt. If all goes well I plan on swapping the parts out this evening and having it back up and going tomorrow. Fingers crossed. A buddy mentioned to me spraying a thin layer of copper coat on the top of the cover where it meets the bottom of the head. Any of you guys think that's a good idea?
 
Ok question time. I got it the rest of the way apart tonight and am on hold until I get a puller to get the crank sprocket off. Anyways got a couple things I have concern about. Should there be a gasket behind the chain tensioner? I know oil pressure helps keep the chain tight but if I pushed the tensioner in and let it spring back out oil bubbles squirted out all around the mating surface. Also, I pulled the oil pump off and there is the course spline gear left on the crank over top of the fine spline gear. Should there be play between these 2 gears? I can wobble it around pretty good. Thanks in advance.
 
There's no gasket behind the tensioner. I think I remember mine burbling like that too.

Define "pretty good"? There's going to be a little play between those gears and there's nothing you can do about it. A little play is ok because there's not much resistance from the oil pump so super-tight tolerances aren't required. The FSM may have specs for exactly how much thrust clearance and gear lash is acceptable.
 

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