I am rebuilding the engine due to a bad rock knock. Looking at the rod and main bearings it looked like it was starving for oil. I finally got around to taking the oil pump gears out of the timing cover and the outer ring was cracked and in 3 pieces. My question is, since my truck is within the death range, would I be better off to remove the dowels in the block that line up the front cover? I have heard of other people doing that and getting away with it, but my problem is, by removing the dowels and just bolting the cover up is there any reason to think that it is more aligned on the crank that is was with the dowels?

 

Definitely a 'high interest' topic for 03' owners such as myself. I'm at just over 50k miles in the bad 'vin range' and have been reading, printing and trying to gather info. on any info. pertaining to repairs or replacements.

Question(s)-

- was the pump leaking before pulling the cover? If so for how long?
- did it produce any noise?
- did you have an oil pressure gauge? If so what pressure readings were you getting? Did you notice it gradually go down during the times specified in the forums... such as 2K rpm cold/ hot etc.

Preventative maintenance is what I'm trying to go after such as beating it before it happens. I'm currently adding an oil pressure gauge and I noticed oil on the cover. I'm not losing oil to the point of replenishing. As much as I'd like to pull the cover... funds are tight right now. But the unknown definitely drives an owner crazy.

I've read remove the dowels but placement is a pain. If you are rebuilding the motor- I'd look into the newer block design w/the correct cover/ dowel alignment. If my Disco makes it to 100k miles and I still own it I'm going to have to make a decision of who to use. I'd love to hear stories of those who have gone this route and get their opinions of follow up w/their decision.

Good Luck and keep us posted-

 

from my understanding there were in the grand scheme of things relativley few engines that had the issue with the "bad" dowel. your engine is over 110k so i doubt that yours is one of the bad ones. The majority of "bad" engines usually went by 20-30k. I do not know if it makes any sense for you to go thru the process of trying to replace when they are not going to do any harm at this point. There are a few on this forum that will tell you all '03's are for **** due to their engines. I completely disagree. Just because your engine, like mine, falls in the range does not mean that there IS a problem. It was the easiest way for LR to have a handle on the possible numbers for bean counters. This is how a company works. I have over 113 and counting and for all the things I think about while out and about, the mis-drilled oil pump dowl alignment is not even on the radar. my 2 cents.....

 

This is true, I heard one the other day sound like a new car, but you do not have an oil pump that has broken in three places.
I have seen the same thing several times on this very site, broken outer rings on 03 oil pumps.
Ruffram's question was would it line up better without the dowels? I dont know that.
You could scribing the block in a few places with the cover on the dowels, them remove the dowels and bolt just the cover on and see if there is a difference without the dowels.
Just a though, wouldn't cost you anything but some time.

 

With your mileage I doubt its an alignment issue. Just search, there are plenty of other years with a high number of them being '04 that have the cracked outer pump gear sometimes they pump forever like that sometimes they blow out the front cover. I would just rebuild the pump and be good for another 100k.

 

I am inclined to just put new pump gears in and put it back in like it was. I am adding an oil pressure gauge with audible alert and plan to watch it carefully. My thought is that it's easy to take the cover off again with the motor in the truck and replace the gears down the road if oil pressure begins to fluctuate. I am afraid of doing more harm than good by removing the dowels. The previous owner did not do maintenance as he should and with no gauge it is possible he was driving it a while with weak oil pressure and that's what killed the rod bearings. It made it to 112,000 even if it did smoke the rod bearings. With a gauge and regular oil changes I am hoping it will do another 112

 

what where your oil pressure numbers before the teardown? was your oil light on?

 

Stupid me didn't check it before I took it apart. Rod knock was so Loud I was scared to take it above idle. Oil light never came on in the short time I messed with it before teardown and the previous owners aren't really reliable enough to ask them.I planned to replace the pump gears anyway so I didn't think too much about it.

 

for that much rod bearing wear it must have not been pushing much oil pressure at 2000rpm, probably just the 8psi needed to keep light from illuminating.

 

the ring gears self destructing is a different failure vs the outer cover cracking from stress of the dowel misalignment....no?