I want to remove the timing cover

[TWeatherford]

Title says it all. Everyone says don't do it. I know its hard, and that the water pump and everything in front of it has to come off. Thats not a big deal, I'm used to taking everything apart to do anything. I have an 85 6.9 with the old style cover and fill neck and a 7.3 sitting here with the new style on it.

I want to because with the older motors with a serpentine belt installed, there is no good way to run a road draft tube (RDT). I might be able to invent a few more ways to try to do it, and eventually one will work, but I'm a little tired of trying. The later style is a lot easier to install a port to run the RDT, and then everyone will have to look real close to tell I have an older engine in this truck.

So whats involved? In all the searches, everyone just dismisses it as an option because its the hard way to do an injection pump, and I've never seen discussion on how to do it. If its really a total nightmare, maybe I'll reconsider. But the engine swap in the rain wasn't a day in the park and I enjoyed that.

 

[LCAM-01XA]

Here's a dumb question - why not just weld a fitting to your oil fill neck? That would save you all the trouble, of removing the timing cover, methinks...

 

[icanfixall]

It sounds like you are "going in" no matter what anyone says so go for it is my thoughts. You will need the crank dampner puller installer tool. If you don't have that I can loan you mine thats designed by OTC for these motors. That front timing cover plate is set into the top gear cover and the oil pan front so cleaning both of those locations is important... Otherwise you will end up with oil leaks. I use permatex copper plus rtv for a sealer. This is one place where more is better. A small tooth brush type wire brush works great at the oil pan seal area. Down there you don't want to use any cork or rubber type pan gasket... They wont seal as well as rtv... Even the factory didn't use a pan gasket. They used rtv. You will need the front cover gaskets that seal the plate to the block. Ford or International still sells this.

 

[TWeatherford]

Here's a dumb question - why not just weld a fitting to your oil fill neck? That would save you all the trouble, of removing the timing cover, methinks...

I thought about that, but it would probably look a little redneck. Enough stuff on this truck looks really redneck already without trying. I want a respectable view under the hood, even if I do have two extra cylinders and they're not in a neat row.

 

[dyoung14]

I thought about that, but it would probably look a little redneck. Enough stuff on this truck looks really redneck already without trying. I want a respectable view under the hood, even if I do have two extra cylinders and they're not in a neat row.

nothing wrong with a truck looking redneck, me and my truck both are redneck lol, personally i would never pull the timing cover unless i had too, but thats just me, but whatever you decide i wish you luck, and whenever you get that extra pump ready just shoot me a pm and tell me when to send the money

 

[Agnem]

So if I understand you correctly, your saying with the serp belt, that the Banks adapter which is traditionally purchased to do an RDT on the front of the pump gear housing will not work? If true, then I guess the relocation of the filler neck must be the issue. So... to swap your gear housings here is how I would try to do it. First, remove the pump gear access cover and break loose the 3 pump gear to pump mounting bolts. Snug them back up, just enough that you will not have difficulty loosening them later when the asembly is out of the truck. Remove the fuel screw access port on the passenger side of the pump, and stick the correct size allen wrench in the screw. Make sure that the wrench sticks out a true 90 degrees from the top of the pump. you could ensure this with a square. Obviously you will need to make sure that the wrench fits the allen perfectly, and hopefully.. tightly. Proceed to remove the pump gear cover, keeping the pump, cover, and gear as one assembly. Once off, scribe a line across the gear using the bottom of the cover as a guide. remove the 3 bolts and drop the gear out. Keep the removed gear in the correct orientation. Note the relationship of the static timing line on the pump, to the scribed line on the pump housing. Make a mark on the pump to show where the line on the housing fell. Proceed to unbolt the pump from the housing, and then sit the new housing and the old housing face to face on a flat surface. Compare the alighnment of the scribe marks on the new housing with the old one. If they are not identical, transfer the mark from the original housing, to the new one. Remember that the marks are mirrored and you cannot just draw the line across. They should not be off much, but whatever difference there is, you can divide by 2, and then move the the mark on the new housing that much in the proper direction. When you turn the housing around, they should look to be in the same place. Then proceed to bolt the IP back to the new housing, matching up the lines you established in the previous two proceedures. Re-install the gear on the pump. Ensure that the allen wrench in the pump fuel screw is still square, and re-attach the gear to the pump. Verify that the scribed line on the gear is still in the same relationship as it was with the original housing. DO NOT try to tighten the bolts using the fuel screw allen as a stop (sorry I had to mention that, but I can just see somebody doing this in a forgetfull state). Ensure that the pump screw adjusting ***** is 90 degrees to the pump body, and re-install the pump housing. Consider using alignment dowels in the bolt holes if needed to help preserve gear alignment until the pump assembly is fully lowered. Remove the allen wrench and reassemble as normal. Using this proceedure, you should be able to preserve both your gear alignment, and your timing setting in so much as possible, within a degree or two at most.

 

[chowitworkz]

What Mel said when I did mine was just cautious not to allow movement of the gear. Not really any more difficult than swapping IP.

 

[LCAM-01XA]

I thought about that, but it would probably look a little redneck. Enough stuff on this truck looks really redneck already without trying. I want a respectable view under the hood, even if I do have two extra cylinders and they're not in a neat row.

not necessarily, just gotta use a low-power setting of the welder and when you're done you'd probably wanna clean up the weld with a die-grinder.

 

[towcat]

i pull the cover and gear frequently. all you need to do is some prep ahead of time. line up the harmonic balancer on TDC and index the locating stud for the gear at the 4o'clock position. the ip drive bolts will be at the 10/2/6 position. pull, swap covers and put back together with the bolts indexed. here's a couple of pics......