The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area General Truck Talk Timing Cover bolts

Anyone remember seeing a Post/Tip/Article about the (2) Timing Cover bolts that screw in from the back side
of the cover that necessitates removing the Oil Pan to get to them when replacing the Timing Cover gasket?

I seem to remember it involved threading the two existing holes so the bolts could be installed from the front,
so as to not have to remove the Oil Pan when changing the Timing Cover gasket.

I'm in the process of Overhauling and would like to do this mod while everything is open.

I suspect I saw either here or at "DTN" Deve's TechNet forum, but can't find it.
Anyone do this or are familiar with the post?
Thanks, Jim

"tc".....you 'da man
thanks, Jim

I performed this mod back in 2005 when I rebuilt the 235 in the '51. It was easy and proved to be quite a time saver when I had to replace the cheap chrome timing cover I tried to use. I highly recommend it.

Once an engine is built up[ properly with an original equipment timing cover and a good quality seal, it's highly unlikely the timing cover will need to be removed for quite some time. That bolt arrangement was a holdover from the time that main bearing clearance on the 216's and splash-oiler 235's could be adjusted with shims. It was a lot easier to pull the two bolts from the crankcase side than it was to fight with the front motor mount to get to the bolt heads from the front.

With timing gears (not a chain) that last 3 days past forever, and high quality synthetic rubber lip seals that don't dry out and leak, why would anyone want to pull the timing cover between major overhauls?
Jerry

Jerry makes a good point. I believe the mod comes from everyone who has ever had the misfortune of inheriting an old engine with a leaky timing cover seal and have to go through a lot of difficult work to fix it, including removing the balancer, and dropping the oil pan, creating the possibility of causing another leak there. So after all of those headaches, we decide that we are not ever going through that again! This frustration muddies up our judgement, in terms of what Jerry has brought up. That is, you probably will never have to do it again until the engine is worn out, requiring us to pull it out of the truck and tear it completely down on an engine stand, making the original design no so much of a problem.
Carl.

When we built up John's 261 late last year, we discussed the exact same scenario, and decided to reassemble it "as designed" without converting the timing cover to "front only" bolts. I really doubt if it will make much of a difference.
Jerry

I agree with the naysayers regarding the need/justification to do that modification.

However, if I have the engine apart (and/or the timing gear cover off), my lazy/simplistic attitude is "why not". That 15 minutes might save me time/effort/swearing and a lot of effort (before I die) or save someone else that effort (after I die)?

I think Tim has it right. It may not be necessary, but if you already have the engine apart, you might as well. And, the price is right.

I agree with everything Jerry said, but I never thought of it that way! I just focused on the nuisance aspect!

Another reason (also completely unnecessary) that I like to do the modification is that the timing covers differ for AD, TF and 60-62 trucks because of the engine mounts. The shape of the timing cover is exactly the same, the bottoms have different hole patterns because different style engine mounts were used. AD's have the square holes to accept a carriage bolt dropped from the top down, the TF's don't have any holes and the 60-62's have round holes. They can all be adapted to fit any model, but if a guy wants the correct timing cover to fit the engine mount for a particular year truck, or wants to remove the timing cover to adapt it to fit a particular year, this modification makes it an easier task because the pan doesn't have to be dropped.

Matt