Well it all started as a major gasket replacement....

Started on the top and worked my way down. Got to the timing chain cover (already removed the oil pan) and decided to check on the oil pump as "Disco Mike" recommended. In the meantime realized that the timing chain is way loose. Took the oil pump cover off and ........taaaaa daaaaa......BUSTED!!!!! Outer ring is in 5 pieces!!!!!!!!

Truck way always super quite, never any problems with low oil pressure.....but guess what! Even if it is outside of cursed "VIN range", it can still happen.

Luckily today I went ahead and ordered water pump, oil pump and timing chain gears and chain from Atlantic British prior to checking. Decided to replace it anyways as "Disco Mike" asked me earlier if I was doing it, in one of the previous posts.

Truck is an '03 with 83,000 miles.

Call me Lucky from now on!!!!!

Thanks "Disco Mike" and everyone else with other posts that got me thinking if I should do this!

Cheers!

 

Good catch that would have sucked to get it all back together and have an oil pump failure.

 

Boris,
Can you send us a picture of your oil pump so others can see what can happen?

 

Absolutely,

Please see attached. I will see if I can take better pictures later today.

I have an Engineer that works with me and he has a PhD in mechanical pumps. After I showed him the pictures, he was astonished. He said that it was a miracle that I was getting any pressure at all.I guess I was lucky. I will bring him the broken pump so he can do his analyzing. I will keep you posted on what he had to say.

Anyways......even if your Disco is outside of this "bad pump VIN range" this can still happen to you.

Cracks are very tiny and they are very hard to see on the pictures. Once you start pushing the outer ring with your fingers cracks grow to 1.0mm in gap (one at a time).

Like I said...I will take some better pics later today.

 

so will the new replaced gears break again? If so how long?

 

Not sure. Hopefully not. My educated guess at this time is that the material was not strong enough. Hopefully they made material changes on these new oil pump kits they are selling.