94 5.0 timing chain cover question, need some advice

[Smoke'm]

hey guys being a Chevy guy crossing over I have not had the front timing cover off a 5.0 yet...here is the question I picked up the 5.0 GT vert off of Craig's tonight...

it was kicking water out on the ground under the water pump and when I crawled under to see what was going on I see where there is a half circle wear mark on the timing chain cover above the balancer,,wtf I think......oil is clean and it makes decent press...but I swear I am looking at the opening into the timing chain area...and the really weird part is I swear it looks like it wore from the outside in!

you guys seen anything like this before??? I need to trailer the car home in the next day or so and I forgot my dig camera when I went to look at it, so I cant put up a pic of what I am talking about.

car runs and drive great just tossing water on the ground pretty fast, pretty sure its from the bearing relief hole on the pump.

any feedback is appreciated.

Thnx Bud.

 

[Rootus]

That's pretty wild, I wonder how it happened. There's not really much around there but the balancer... maybe the stock balancer came apart slowly and they didn't catch it, and tore the hole.

Replacing the water pump is very easy, but doing the timing chain cover is one of my least favorite jobs on a 5.0. Always seems to be a bitch to get the bottom to break loose. Fun.

 

[Smoke'm]

Yea I thought about the same...but the balancer is a good 2" away from the rub spot and looked like a little bigger arc than the balancer??? if the balancer did something weird the belt would have fallen right off and lost all the acc's...

hard to tell from trying to jam your head under the spoiler without a jack, so that had me scratchin my head a little trying to figure what had happened...you would think you would hear something eating the cover and shut it down...dunno

the guy was playing the "I dont know anything about cars" card looking me square in the eye... so I was real leary about the whole thing but it ran out fine...who knows, I will snap a pic when I get it home sat.

Bud.

 

[lamrith]

Well I might have a timing cover I can let go if you need one.. better price than the rapist on eGay is shraging too heh Don;t thik I have a water pump though..

That does sound like a wierd issue!! Cam timing gear is going to be ablout the same diam at the damper if that helps at all.. Hate to know what happened to cause a timting gear to be loos enough to kill a timting cover though!?!??

Take some pictures!!

 

[Smoke'm]

need to get it home and jack it up and see it up close and snap a pic for you guys...sounds wild but I had the idea of just welding a small plate over the spot last night and not deal with pulling it,

after reading a couple threads last night on the timing cover bolts and all that a guy fights with the timing cover, it dont sound like fun to me... I just did a head gasket on a boat motor and 7 head bolts broke off in the block..that was a week from he!! getting them out carefully not looking to do that again any time soon .

its definitely not the timing chain, it rubbed from the outside in.... and the motor runs like swiss watch...one of those wierd deals.

 

[Smoke'm]

check this out....

 

[Smoke'm]

amazing what a little soap and water does...shined up nice.

 

[Rootus]

Yea I thought about the same...but the balancer is a good 2" away from the rub spot and looked like a little bigger arc than the balancer??? if the balancer did something weird the belt would have fallen right off and lost all the acc's...

I stand by my original guess, it really looks like the balancer came apart. On a 302, the crank pulley bolts to the center of the balancer, and so it'll never be affected by the balancer coming apart... it can be wobbling all over the place and the serpentine belt won't be affected, and you'll never know something is up unless you look, or start to feel the imbalance through the drivetrain. And if the outer ring disconnected entirely, I could see it hanging out a ways and tearing a great big gash in the timing cover. I wonder how long it took the owner to figure out it was time to turn it off and fix it...

Dave

 

[codemonkey]

I agree. Look at the radius of the hole, it had to be centered on your crankshaft, and there is nothing there but the balancer. It really couldn't be anything else. Plus, the old balancer was likely a larger diameter than the one you have now. I've seen some monsters on 302s.

If it helps any, a timing cover really isn't all that bad, it's just time consuming. Like rootus said, the bottom can be a pain in the ass, and getting that stupid rubber gasket to stay on the oilpan can be a pain. But in your case, I would probably look at doing it, or having it done.

 

[Smoke'm]

I've seen some monsters on 302s.

ahhh that makes more sense..I have seen the outers slide off on chevy's and wing around..did not occur to me that the ford ran big balancers...yes what a dope to not hear it..must have had the tunes cranked??? and who would toss on a balancer and not fix the cover..another wtf guessing between this and the water pump seal going he parked it after getting a huge quote to fix it.

I plan to yank the 5spd setup for my black car and either put my auto stuff in it and sell it cheap or will sell it cheap as a roller and stash the 5spd stuff for later, talked with Brads about doing the trade with the two cars as I can do the job no problem but just dont have the time right now, two little kids spare time is very limited, they guessed about 1000 to 1500 for labor more like a grand , I have another guy I trust to do it and plan to talk with him tomorrow and see if he wants to do the work .

any of you guys converted a auto car to stick and done it back to stock properly??? my understanding is it is plug and play.

switch the trannies and computers and pedals, radiators...where do they stash the main brain at???

another question as I have not jacked them up side by side is there are wireing harnesses on both trannies do they just plug/unplug into the main harness at the firewall area and have the same connectors???? no splicing of stuff right???

also when I get under the dash, wondering if the small harness for the auto stuff and the stick clutch pedal safety stuff plugs and plays....


yes it sounds like to much work but I drug home a really clean black car.... the auto has to go before summer.


any feedback appreciated, Thnx Bud.