Head Gasket leak and removal - Sump Oil pan gasket also
#1
04-02-2014, 11:05 AM
Head Gasket leak and removal - Sump Oil pan gasket also
I decided put this together to help those with Head Gasket Replacement.
My Truck – 2003 LR Disco 2 139,000miles.
First off- This the worst truck ever. In terms of quality. But I like how it drives and it nimbleness. But the materail used in building this truck is pre -1990’s quality. Oil and coolant was leaking all over the engine. There is always something that is broken. The coolant leak started at the passenger side back near the firewall. Wasn’t sure exactly where but used my camera probe and it looked like it leaked between the block and head. It was not the coolant hose. I left it like that for awhile topping off about a quart every week. Pretty soon it got worst then started also leaking at the front of the engine. Also on passenger side. The Sump Pan was coated with oil so I changed the oil pan gasket first. When I took the heads down, I realize the oil coating the oil pan was from the Valley Pan gasket and not the oil pan gasket. I read that is where the cooalnt could be also be leaking from. But I was not sure. I was into it already.
Pointers On the Sump pan gasket replacement:
I tried taking out the cross protection bar underneath and broke one bolt. These bolts are soft. Use a 12 pt socket and go extremely slow when you loosen the bolt. I stopped removing the bar and did the Tie-Rod alternative I read about. Droped the Tie-rod. That worked like a charm. Loosened the nuts and bolts on the oil pan, then used a impact ratchet to speed things along. Did the reverse when installing. I did not remove the oil cooler tubing. Just removed the holding brackets and got the oil pan around them. Use gasket sealant at location specified. As I said I probably did not need a new gasket, the leak was from the front valley pan down the engine.
It took me about four hours total with truck on jack stands. I torqued to specification
Steering wheel play:
I had some steering wheel free play and decided adjust that also since I am tearing things apart. Sprayed some WD4 to help loosen things up first. Then everything worked out fine. I need about 3 revolutions of the adjustment bolt/stud before I could feel the steering column start to tighten up.
Head Gaskets: 8-10 manhours tear down
What a ….!! My first one, but I have done quite extensive work on other parts of cars. So I can hold my own. Machanically inclined with a decent amount of tools.
Tools
Tools I added to the box which I did not have: 12pt scoket set. I had a lot of 6pt socket sets. Exhaust bolts are 12pts. Box/Crow foot wrench which I did not use will probably return. Adjustable wrenchs, for SAI air, worked fine once the exhaust manifold is removed.. Another ½ drive impact wrench. The one I had for over 5yrs died. I broke a fan blade so I bought a chain wrench to remove the fan when I am done and reassembling. Wire brush and rags to cleans parts.
Tools needed: is a good 12 point socket set. The 13mm is used a lot and mine started to strip. Harbourfrieght cheap stuff!!! A 8mm 12pt 3/8 drive tapering deep socket to remove the rocker bar cover. . Some usersrecommend 1/4 in drive. Mines worked as a charm. That was an extra trip, one of a few, to pick up tools. Lowes has this as standard stock item. $3.95.
I plan to reuse plugs and wires since I had no problems with them.
Total time to tear done – 8-10 manhours.( Spread it out over several days.) Looking back now I would loosen the nuts and bolts then use an impact ratchet to speed up removal. I started using it near the eand of tear down. I went slowly and took pictures of problem situations for reassembly. Example hose and wiring reconnection. Mechanical parts can only go on one way, so no need for pictures.
The RAVE manual is decent but there are some work arounds.
The fuel rail and inlet manifold can come out as one piece attached. Remove the spark plug coil pack first and you will see the fuel rail/fuel line connections to the back and top of engine. Press the blue button and the fuel rail pulls out. I of course took things aparts on the bench o clean injectors and put on new rubber gaskets on injectors, which came with the Head Gasket Kit.
The rave manual does not list remove the AC compressor. This is one of the first things to be removed.
Group and tag things as much as possible. Re-attach bolts to parts removed for ease of finding when reassemblying.
I did not remove the hood as recommended but it might of made things a lot easier by providing more room. But not necssary.
When I removed the driver side head. One of the exhaust valve was cracked. That needed to be replaced.
Combustion chamber and piston surface was fairly clean. The head (inside) was dirty.
Remove the exhaust manifold first and it will make the removal of the SAI air manifold easy. I tried removing the SAI air manifold first, even with the box/claw wrench and it did not work. When I removed the exhaust manifold all I needed was a big and small adjustable wrench to crack the union and remove the brass/copper tubing. The head tubing screws right out once the manifold is removed.
I did not remove the brake heat shield on driver side but the Rave recommends it. It would of make the bolts on the back of the head easier to remove. I used swivel extentions and wobble socket to get by.
There are connectors and ground wire bolted to the head so be careful. I was ready to lift head off when I felt a tug. Pulling engine head off the attached wires to the back can snag and break. Fortunately I did not tug too hard. This is not mentioned in the Rave.
When I removed the driver side head I noticed one exhaust valve was cracked. $16 new on ebay.
The Valley Pan gasket was a wreck. It was flaking and breaking apart. That seemed to be cause of most of my leaks. But I was already in deep. So I went on to remove the head.
Once I removed the valley pan gasket I covered the opening with a piece of cloth to prevent nuts and stuff falling into the engine.
I was quoted $125 at a local shop to machine the heads. We will see.
Time to reassembly.
My Truck – 2003 LR Disco 2 139,000miles.
First off- This the worst truck ever. In terms of quality. But I like how it drives and it nimbleness. But the materail used in building this truck is pre -1990’s quality. Oil and coolant was leaking all over the engine. There is always something that is broken. The coolant leak started at the passenger side back near the firewall. Wasn’t sure exactly where but used my camera probe and it looked like it leaked between the block and head. It was not the coolant hose. I left it like that for awhile topping off about a quart every week. Pretty soon it got worst then started also leaking at the front of the engine. Also on passenger side. The Sump Pan was coated with oil so I changed the oil pan gasket first. When I took the heads down, I realize the oil coating the oil pan was from the Valley Pan gasket and not the oil pan gasket. I read that is where the cooalnt could be also be leaking from. But I was not sure. I was into it already.
Pointers On the Sump pan gasket replacement:
I tried taking out the cross protection bar underneath and broke one bolt. These bolts are soft. Use a 12 pt socket and go extremely slow when you loosen the bolt. I stopped removing the bar and did the Tie-Rod alternative I read about. Droped the Tie-rod. That worked like a charm. Loosened the nuts and bolts on the oil pan, then used a impact ratchet to speed things along. Did the reverse when installing. I did not remove the oil cooler tubing. Just removed the holding brackets and got the oil pan around them. Use gasket sealant at location specified. As I said I probably did not need a new gasket, the leak was from the front valley pan down the engine.
It took me about four hours total with truck on jack stands. I torqued to specification
Steering wheel play:
I had some steering wheel free play and decided adjust that also since I am tearing things apart. Sprayed some WD4 to help loosen things up first. Then everything worked out fine. I need about 3 revolutions of the adjustment bolt/stud before I could feel the steering column start to tighten up.
Head Gaskets: 8-10 manhours tear down
What a ….!! My first one, but I have done quite extensive work on other parts of cars. So I can hold my own. Machanically inclined with a decent amount of tools.
Tools
Tools I added to the box which I did not have: 12pt scoket set. I had a lot of 6pt socket sets. Exhaust bolts are 12pts. Box/Crow foot wrench which I did not use will probably return. Adjustable wrenchs, for SAI air, worked fine once the exhaust manifold is removed.. Another ½ drive impact wrench. The one I had for over 5yrs died. I broke a fan blade so I bought a chain wrench to remove the fan when I am done and reassembling. Wire brush and rags to cleans parts.
Tools needed: is a good 12 point socket set. The 13mm is used a lot and mine started to strip. Harbourfrieght cheap stuff!!! A 8mm 12pt 3/8 drive tapering deep socket to remove the rocker bar cover. . Some usersrecommend 1/4 in drive. Mines worked as a charm. That was an extra trip, one of a few, to pick up tools. Lowes has this as standard stock item. $3.95.
I plan to reuse plugs and wires since I had no problems with them.
Total time to tear done – 8-10 manhours.( Spread it out over several days.) Looking back now I would loosen the nuts and bolts then use an impact ratchet to speed up removal. I started using it near the eand of tear down. I went slowly and took pictures of problem situations for reassembly. Example hose and wiring reconnection. Mechanical parts can only go on one way, so no need for pictures.
The RAVE manual is decent but there are some work arounds.
The fuel rail and inlet manifold can come out as one piece attached. Remove the spark plug coil pack first and you will see the fuel rail/fuel line connections to the back and top of engine. Press the blue button and the fuel rail pulls out. I of course took things aparts on the bench o clean injectors and put on new rubber gaskets on injectors, which came with the Head Gasket Kit.
The rave manual does not list remove the AC compressor. This is one of the first things to be removed.
Group and tag things as much as possible. Re-attach bolts to parts removed for ease of finding when reassemblying.
I did not remove the hood as recommended but it might of made things a lot easier by providing more room. But not necssary.
When I removed the driver side head. One of the exhaust valve was cracked. That needed to be replaced.
Combustion chamber and piston surface was fairly clean. The head (inside) was dirty.
Remove the exhaust manifold first and it will make the removal of the SAI air manifold easy. I tried removing the SAI air manifold first, even with the box/claw wrench and it did not work. When I removed the exhaust manifold all I needed was a big and small adjustable wrench to crack the union and remove the brass/copper tubing. The head tubing screws right out once the manifold is removed.
I did not remove the brake heat shield on driver side but the Rave recommends it. It would of make the bolts on the back of the head easier to remove. I used swivel extentions and wobble socket to get by.
There are connectors and ground wire bolted to the head so be careful. I was ready to lift head off when I felt a tug. Pulling engine head off the attached wires to the back can snag and break. Fortunately I did not tug too hard. This is not mentioned in the Rave.
When I removed the driver side head I noticed one exhaust valve was cracked. $16 new on ebay.
The Valley Pan gasket was a wreck. It was flaking and breaking apart. That seemed to be cause of most of my leaks. But I was already in deep. So I went on to remove the head.
Once I removed the valley pan gasket I covered the opening with a piece of cloth to prevent nuts and stuff falling into the engine.
I was quoted $125 at a local shop to machine the heads. We will see.
Time to reassembly.
#3
04-04-2014, 06:01 AM
Baja
#4
04-04-2014, 09:15 AM
Drifting
#5
04-04-2014, 09:50 AM
Baja
#7
04-07-2014, 10:26 AM
A few other tips I should add.
When removing the engine head, remove the head bolts in the order as specifed in the RAVE. I had to put the inner bolts back on after I broke about 3 extensions using a cheater bar. Apparently, there is pressure/stress put on the outer bolts when the inner bolts are removed first. I needed to retighten the inner bolts and then remove the outer bolts first followed by the outer bolts. They came off easily then.
The shop quoted me $125 but when I dropped the head off in person I got more details. Also their website said one thing, in person was another. The $125 only included chemical clean and milling the head. I highly recommended milling the head. The driver side looked about less than 1/8’’ short(warped) at some points. The passenger side head looked OK, but the passenger side was where the leak was. Go figure, howver, the head gasket(passenger side) looked deteriorated near back fire wall. No milling or at least checking for warp can lead to immediate return of the coolant leak. Which is pointless.
The quote did not include any work on the valves seating or putting on new seals. That was an additional charge. There was an additional charge also of $50 to replace valve seals, which came with my kit. Fingers cross they do a decent job. I don’t to tear this down again.
Time to prep the block and service injectors while I wait for the heads. They said it is usually a 1-2 day job.
From what I read. Shaving the head(short block?) give more more power and better performance. Since there is increased compression pressure. Maybe I should have the valve reseated also but cha! Ching!…anyways
More to come
When removing the engine head, remove the head bolts in the order as specifed in the RAVE. I had to put the inner bolts back on after I broke about 3 extensions using a cheater bar. Apparently, there is pressure/stress put on the outer bolts when the inner bolts are removed first. I needed to retighten the inner bolts and then remove the outer bolts first followed by the outer bolts. They came off easily then.
The shop quoted me $125 but when I dropped the head off in person I got more details. Also their website said one thing, in person was another. The $125 only included chemical clean and milling the head. I highly recommended milling the head. The driver side looked about less than 1/8’’ short(warped) at some points. The passenger side head looked OK, but the passenger side was where the leak was. Go figure, howver, the head gasket(passenger side) looked deteriorated near back fire wall. No milling or at least checking for warp can lead to immediate return of the coolant leak. Which is pointless.
The quote did not include any work on the valves seating or putting on new seals. That was an additional charge. There was an additional charge also of $50 to replace valve seals, which came with my kit. Fingers cross they do a decent job. I don’t to tear this down again.
Time to prep the block and service injectors while I wait for the heads. They said it is usually a 1-2 day job.
From what I read. Shaving the head(short block?) give more more power and better performance. Since there is increased compression pressure. Maybe I should have the valve reseated also but cha! Ching!…anyways
More to come
Last edited by mike111; 04-07-2014 at 10:35 AM.
#8
04-21-2014, 12:53 PM
Ok. I finally finished and got my 2003 Disco started. ~139K miles
Overall it took me about 10hrs to reassembly and get the truck started. Spread out over about 2 weeks.
Few key pointers:
I recommended milling the head. Torquing the spring bolts on the heads is a pain. 15lbs seemed finger tight to me so I torqued to 20 then did the two 90sdeg. That was hard. Should have stuck with 15lbs.
I switched the heads around by mistake and only caught it when one head was already bolted on. What happened was I screwed up on the “dowel like” 10in stud thing for the AC bracket and assumed that was the correct head thinking the other head would not have that hole. When I put the second head(passenger side) on, I realized there were holes for the ground wire bolt and wire harness to the front which should be to the back. Which seemed odd(the holes should be on the other head—bottom line, the heads are duplicates interchangeable). I started panicing thinking I was in deep trouble. I did not want to take these spring bolts and gasket off again then wait on a shipment of new ones. Aggh!!
So I decided to continue on. Besides the heads were milled so both were new/different heads anyway. I was only worried about the push rods(which I kept in order) and rockers. Will they fit with the now reversed AND milled heads? Should I now switch the push rods and rockers around to match the heads. I decided to leave them on their original sides(passenger/driver).
Before putting on the heads I cleaned my cylinder top which were crusty with carbon. Paint thinner and soft wire rotary brush on a portable battery drill at low speed. All the junk came right off. No scratches. Now heads and cylinders were all shinny and clean as new.
Wiped, dried and blowed everything out with compressed air. Bolted heads on using paint marker to ensure 180 degrees total.
I installed the 2ndary air tubes(Only) before the exhaust manifold. Then push rods and rockers. The push rods looked longer and the rockers would not fit. But when rockers are bolted down the push rods went down into the hydraulics and they fit. So far so good.
My advice is to put the new rocker cover gaskets and cover BEFORE the valley pan gasket. I put the valley pan gasket first then the lower inlet manifold. Now when installing the rocker cover gasket one of the washer type ferrule fell through one of the many holes in the head and went down into the engine. Aggh!!! I did not want to take everything apart again. Needing new valley pan gaskets etc. So I got my camera probe out and saw that ferrule was wedged between the base of the assembly at one push rod. I debated getting a magnetic probe and getting it out. I decide to leave it there and continue. Infact when I disassembled the engine I found one there from the previous owner. So?!. It did not look like it would move around with the oil slushing about.
When putting the valley pan gasket on, adjust to final torque BEFORE putting on the Fuel rail assembled and lower inlet manifold. I pressembled and fastened the injectors to the lower inlet before attaching on top of valley pan gasket then realized I could not get to some bolts for final torque because the injector assembly was in the way. Off comes the injector assembly!! Aggh!! You can tell I wasn’t following the RAVE by the letter. Torque and order of torquing bolts I pretty much followed.
With Lower inlet manifold on then I did the rocker covers. (as I said this should be done earlier) Make sure the rocker cover gasket fits properly ALL the way around. That took close to 1.5 hour!!. Yes, 1.5. Why? Because the valley pan gasket and the lower inlet was in the way and I could not see all the way around. Got my probe camera out again!!. Another reason to get the rocker covers on first and soon.
Installed all the accessories(alternator, AC etc).. Made short work of those. Cleaned, checked and double checked the plugs, plug wires and coil, and injector wires. Used dieletric grease. There is a lot of confusing and contradicting information on the web about wiring order for coil. Use the Rave manual. It is correct.
I then placed and bolted on the Upper manifold, and then had to remove it again. Aggh!!. The light blue connector on the injector daisy chain wire harness connectors (for the thingy on the throttle body) was caught between the firewall and below the spark coil(driver side). And that was the last connector I needed to attach to finish the job. So off comes the upper inlet manifold, again.
I got to admit I can get the upper manifold out and do a tune-up including a coil change within 45minutes now.
Filled up with engine oil, coolant, power steering fluid.
Connect battery and turn the key. Engine turns over smoothly but would not start. Aggh!! I cleaned and triple checked electrical connections when reassembling. Hazard lights are flashing but the hazard switch is NOT on. Now what?! Went to the forums and found it it could be the fuel inertia switch. Indeed that was the problem!! Apparently it broke from the bracket. Fixed that, reset the switch, and the truck started right up. YEAH!!!
Saved myself between $2000-$3000. Spending that kind of money at an indy shop and not knowing if the job was done properly was my biggest fear. It was either junk the truck or fix it myself. An oil change is one thing but I got burnt already in the past. Paid close to $1800 for an engine job(Taurus) and within 9mths the engine crapped out. And with many confrontations and treats of legal action I never got my money back. If the job gets screwed up at least I am not out $2000. Besides I am mechanically inclined and had the time but it took much longer than I expected. Total of about 22 hours. I reality I can cut that down to 12 hours next time around.
Truck sounds good. There doesn’t seems to be any leaks. I needed to top off coolant after about 10 min run.
I will see if there are any leaks within the next 2 weeks.
The gaskets kit could be better stocked. It should include the bolts for the rocker cover, gasket for the 2 coolant metal tube. They were NOT included. I am worried about the quality of the head gasket kit though It was not OEM from LR British. Got it from Eurasia on ebay. All kits seemed to have the same part number, I am thinking they are all the same. Not sure. The LRB kit had parts that was not needed plus I needed to buy the spring bolts from them separately. Total about $220+. The kit I got included the spring bolts. Total about $145 no shipping fee plus one year warranty which is useless with the amount of work involved. I don’t want to be doing this anytime soon. If the truck gives me another 25,000miles without a major problem like this I will be happy.
OH! I did not look at any of the pictures I took when reassembling!! I did not need to. There is only one way to connect many of the connectors and tubes.
Anyone has a Disco to sell with a gasket leak?? LOL!
Overall it took me about 10hrs to reassembly and get the truck started. Spread out over about 2 weeks.
Few key pointers:
I recommended milling the head. Torquing the spring bolts on the heads is a pain. 15lbs seemed finger tight to me so I torqued to 20 then did the two 90sdeg. That was hard. Should have stuck with 15lbs.
I switched the heads around by mistake and only caught it when one head was already bolted on. What happened was I screwed up on the “dowel like” 10in stud thing for the AC bracket and assumed that was the correct head thinking the other head would not have that hole. When I put the second head(passenger side) on, I realized there were holes for the ground wire bolt and wire harness to the front which should be to the back. Which seemed odd(the holes should be on the other head—bottom line, the heads are duplicates interchangeable). I started panicing thinking I was in deep trouble. I did not want to take these spring bolts and gasket off again then wait on a shipment of new ones. Aggh!!
So I decided to continue on. Besides the heads were milled so both were new/different heads anyway. I was only worried about the push rods(which I kept in order) and rockers. Will they fit with the now reversed AND milled heads? Should I now switch the push rods and rockers around to match the heads. I decided to leave them on their original sides(passenger/driver).
Before putting on the heads I cleaned my cylinder top which were crusty with carbon. Paint thinner and soft wire rotary brush on a portable battery drill at low speed. All the junk came right off. No scratches. Now heads and cylinders were all shinny and clean as new.
Wiped, dried and blowed everything out with compressed air. Bolted heads on using paint marker to ensure 180 degrees total.
I installed the 2ndary air tubes(Only) before the exhaust manifold. Then push rods and rockers. The push rods looked longer and the rockers would not fit. But when rockers are bolted down the push rods went down into the hydraulics and they fit. So far so good.
My advice is to put the new rocker cover gaskets and cover BEFORE the valley pan gasket. I put the valley pan gasket first then the lower inlet manifold. Now when installing the rocker cover gasket one of the washer type ferrule fell through one of the many holes in the head and went down into the engine. Aggh!!! I did not want to take everything apart again. Needing new valley pan gaskets etc. So I got my camera probe out and saw that ferrule was wedged between the base of the assembly at one push rod. I debated getting a magnetic probe and getting it out. I decide to leave it there and continue. Infact when I disassembled the engine I found one there from the previous owner. So?!. It did not look like it would move around with the oil slushing about.
When putting the valley pan gasket on, adjust to final torque BEFORE putting on the Fuel rail assembled and lower inlet manifold. I pressembled and fastened the injectors to the lower inlet before attaching on top of valley pan gasket then realized I could not get to some bolts for final torque because the injector assembly was in the way. Off comes the injector assembly!! Aggh!! You can tell I wasn’t following the RAVE by the letter. Torque and order of torquing bolts I pretty much followed.
With Lower inlet manifold on then I did the rocker covers. (as I said this should be done earlier) Make sure the rocker cover gasket fits properly ALL the way around. That took close to 1.5 hour!!. Yes, 1.5. Why? Because the valley pan gasket and the lower inlet was in the way and I could not see all the way around. Got my probe camera out again!!. Another reason to get the rocker covers on first and soon.
Installed all the accessories(alternator, AC etc).. Made short work of those. Cleaned, checked and double checked the plugs, plug wires and coil, and injector wires. Used dieletric grease. There is a lot of confusing and contradicting information on the web about wiring order for coil. Use the Rave manual. It is correct.
I then placed and bolted on the Upper manifold, and then had to remove it again. Aggh!!. The light blue connector on the injector daisy chain wire harness connectors (for the thingy on the throttle body) was caught between the firewall and below the spark coil(driver side). And that was the last connector I needed to attach to finish the job. So off comes the upper inlet manifold, again.
I got to admit I can get the upper manifold out and do a tune-up including a coil change within 45minutes now.
Filled up with engine oil, coolant, power steering fluid.
Connect battery and turn the key. Engine turns over smoothly but would not start. Aggh!! I cleaned and triple checked electrical connections when reassembling. Hazard lights are flashing but the hazard switch is NOT on. Now what?! Went to the forums and found it it could be the fuel inertia switch. Indeed that was the problem!! Apparently it broke from the bracket. Fixed that, reset the switch, and the truck started right up. YEAH!!!
Saved myself between $2000-$3000. Spending that kind of money at an indy shop and not knowing if the job was done properly was my biggest fear. It was either junk the truck or fix it myself. An oil change is one thing but I got burnt already in the past. Paid close to $1800 for an engine job(Taurus) and within 9mths the engine crapped out. And with many confrontations and treats of legal action I never got my money back. If the job gets screwed up at least I am not out $2000. Besides I am mechanically inclined and had the time but it took much longer than I expected. Total of about 22 hours. I reality I can cut that down to 12 hours next time around.
Truck sounds good. There doesn’t seems to be any leaks. I needed to top off coolant after about 10 min run.
I will see if there are any leaks within the next 2 weeks.
The gaskets kit could be better stocked. It should include the bolts for the rocker cover, gasket for the 2 coolant metal tube. They were NOT included. I am worried about the quality of the head gasket kit though It was not OEM from LR British. Got it from Eurasia on ebay. All kits seemed to have the same part number, I am thinking they are all the same. Not sure. The LRB kit had parts that was not needed plus I needed to buy the spring bolts from them separately. Total about $220+. The kit I got included the spring bolts. Total about $145 no shipping fee plus one year warranty which is useless with the amount of work involved. I don’t want to be doing this anytime soon. If the truck gives me another 25,000miles without a major problem like this I will be happy.
OH! I did not look at any of the pictures I took when reassembling!! I did not need to. There is only one way to connect many of the connectors and tubes.
Anyone has a Disco to sell with a gasket leak?? LOL!
#9
04-22-2014, 01:18 AM
Overlanding
#10
04-23-2014, 03:05 PM
The truck really drives nice but man can things break easily. Couple of days driving without any leaks. So far so good. I heard a slushing of coolant in the heater core when I accelerate so I decided to bleed the coolant system using the suggested method with the bleed screw at the top, air may be in the line. Got the screw off easily but “pop” the plastic screw broke when I finished bleeding the line and repacing the screw. Aggh!
Can’t believe I cannot drive my truck because a 99cent component broke! I ordered the screw($10). It will take a couple of days to come in. I am thinking of using the brass screw substitute with the square head from HD. I am worried about cross-threading and making things worst. Part # 723554 at HD.
Can’t believe I cannot drive my truck because a 99cent component broke! I ordered the screw($10). It will take a couple of days to come in. I am thinking of using the brass screw substitute with the square head from HD. I am worried about cross-threading and making things worst. Part # 723554 at HD.