Am I dead in the water

[psy9zach]

Is attached to the whole front center of the motor or there a single piece for the on the cover?

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[psy9zach]

I'm not 100% but I think I have from what I've seen a similar problem to this

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[Randy Bush]

You would need to pull water pump then front timing cover plate to insure pump gear does not jump when pulling the pump cover where your leak is. Although more work is probably your best route. Either way the pump and lines have to come off first. After that could pull the pump cover and if things don't move replace cover gasket , which if I am not mistaken is only RTV sealant. In which case use some good stuff like Form a gasket.

 

[hce]

No need to pull the timing cover, there are tricks around keeping the timing aligned.
Rotate the engine to top dead center.
remove the lemon shape cover to access the timing gear bolts.
Make a from the gear to the gear cover to realign the gear if moved.
remove the injection pump and lines leaving gear cover on engine.
Once pump is removed, remove the cover taking care not to disturb the mesh of the pump gear.
Again run a mark on both sides of the timing gear along the flat side of the cover mating surface.
Clean the area and use a good rtv to seal, motorcraft or peratex rightstuff
If you disturbed the mesh it can be checked with a knife and clay.
apply a thin layer of clay to the knife 1/8" and press the clay up against the timing gears
The clay will make a nice imprint of the gears and timing marks, there a write up somewhere of this process using a butter knife if you search.

 

[snicklas]

I don't believe the IDI was ever built off of a gas engine. Which is why it was such a good engine. Although don't have any specs in front of me, am sure it was designed as a diesel from the ground up.

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Correct, I’m 99% sure the IDI was not based off a gas IH engine. I do know that most of the IH gas engines were WAY overbuilt and were similar in design and bulk as a diesel.

From what I’ve read, even the 5.7 GM/Detroit from the late 70’s and early 80’s actually was not a gas engine converted to a diesel. It shared the same 350 cubic inch displacement and was similar in size, but was designed by Detroit as a diesel. Much like the GM 6.0 Gas and 6.0 PSD, or the coming Ford 7.3 Gas coming in 2020 and the 7.3 IDI/PSD. Just happen to have the same displacement.

 

[Randy Bush]

The 5.7 GM diesel was very closely in looks and design to the 5.7 Olds engine. It is what make them nice in swapping to a gas engine. The gas would bolt right in and if remember right there was hard parts, tin work that you could interchange. It is also what made them a poor diesel too. Even in GMC heavy trucks the V 6 Toro Flow diesel was very close in design to the V6 gas engine then.

 

[Thewespaul]

Yep, they often took existing designs and applied them to their diesels, kinda an “if it ain’t broke don’t fix it” approach design that you see a lot in engine designing even today. The modern ls engine everyone loves or hates has a lot of design taken from the latter sbf. The 5.7 is a good example of them taking design cues from another manufacturer, but it was never the case of reusing existing molds for a Diesel engine. If they had used the actual mold from the olds the gm 5.7 would likely have been a lot stouter.

 

[icanfixall]

My guess about the oil leak is the injection pump housing o ring. You can easily remove the injection pump but... Make a center punch mark anywhere in the joint line between the pump and the housing. Then you can remove the pump. Clean and change the probably hardened or maybe missing o ring. Then install and line up the two half circles make by the center punch mark. Whatever your timing was before you took things apart will return.

 

[IDIBRONCO]

Thanks for the corrections guys. For some reason, I was thinking that our engines were based on the gas engines like the 404 (larger than the 304/345/392 engines). As for the timing cover, I, personally would never think of removing it without removing the front engine cover too. I know that it can be done successfully, but my opinion is absolutely not.

 

[ttman4]

The 5.7 GM diesel was very closely in looks and design to the 5.7 Olds engine. It is what make them nice in swapping to a gas engine. The gas would bolt right in and if remember right there was hard parts, tin work that you could interchange.

Yeah yrs ago I bought a (IIRC on yrs) '79 Olds diesel blown, found a '78 Olds gas 350 & swapped them out in a short day, me & a friend. Drove the thing home that nite! Drove it several yrs, then one of our sons drove it few yrs after he got his license. Wish I had it today!!!!

On the timing cover thing, I've had mine off & back on few times on a couple of my rigs. Like changing out timing cover from older style to newer style. Though they function same I always liked looks of newer style cover.
I just pull IP then unbolt cover. Then do as @hce & @icanfixall say. Just be careful & it'll go together back in time.
& yes, RTV works.

 

[mckittcu]

Did you check to see that the bolts aren't loose? I'd hate to go to all that trouble then find the bolts hand-tight when I went to remove the cover.

 

[TahoeTom]

It would be a PITA to clean the mating surface of the block and not get debris down the hole with the gear sitting there. I would lay a straightedge across the block and c-clamp it to the gear before removing the gear. As stated before, rotate to TDC on compression stroke prior to removing the housing. At TDC compression the alignment dowel on the IP gear will be at 4 o-clock.

 

[ifrythings]

I haven’t seen it mentioned yet but isn’t that the same area where the weap hole in the ip housing would dump if the outter oil seal went bad? @Thewespaul

 

[jaluhn83]

Pulling the injector pump gear cover is 100% possible without pulling the front cover, just requires care.

Rotate the engine to #1 TDC, verified by looking at rockers or injection pump drive pin.

Remove injection pump from gear & cover.

Remove injection pump gear and cover.

Look closely at the top of the cam gear - there's enough room between front cover and gear that you can see the timing mark if you look closely. If you have to, a thin piece of mirror glass (broken out of a inspection mirror or similar) can be used to help. The timing mark you want is a 'y' stamped on front of gear between 2 teeth.

There is another mark (a dot) on the cam gear 180* out from ca/crank timing. If you know you're on #1 TDC then you don't need to verify which mark you'rr looking at on the cam gear, but if not you do. The thin mirror works here as well.

Mark the tooth on each side of the timing mark on top of gear with paint marker of similiar.

Line the i-pump gear timing mark up between 2 painted teeth and put the gear housing on back over the top while holding it in mesh.

It's not that hard, just have to make sure you've located the timing mark and it's the right one.

 

[Thewespaul]

I haven’t seen it mentioned yet but isn’t that the same area where the weap hole in the ip housing would dump if the outter oil seal went bad? @Thewespaul

It’s probably the gear cover leaking, but as mentioned already clean the area really well and isolate the leak. IF the pump is leaking it will be pooling towards the bottom of the pump under the light load advance piston. If the o ring on the nose of the pump is leaking it will be trickling down the mounting flange of the pump. If the gear cover is leaking it will pool oil above the valley pan and run down.