I tried to fit a new front cover (from SKP, budget parts company) and seemed to get stuck on the dowel pins. I had to hit it quite a lot with a rubber mallet to get it onto the dowels, but I stopped since it seemed like it shouldn’t be that difficult and I didn’t want to break it. It could’ve been the silicone I used on the gasket that jammed it up, but I don’t really think so. I thought I had the dowels polished enough, but I’ll try more of that and getting the locating holes on the cover - maybe I need to bore those out a bit?

I believe the oil pump gear was aligned properly with the woodruff key, although the gear has three slots in it for some reason - not sure if any particular one needs to be used. It took some wiggling to get it on as far I could manage by hand, which I’m assuming was getting onto the woodruff key, but it seemed like dowel pins were holding it up in the end. I should have tried to fit the cover on dry first to see if it’ll just slide on nicely - I didn’t expect this issue, so I used silicone and had to abandon the install since the silicone was drying. I cleaned everything again.

I was told to try to remove the dowel pins and saw if they’ll fit in the new cover, so I’ll try that - pins might be tough to remove since they didn’t come out with the old cover or the new one.

Am I experiencing anything to do with the 2003 oil pump issue? This vehicle is within the affected VIN range. I just want to know if I’m dealing with something like that or not. I was told that all those engines either failed by 25,000 miles or so (I’m at 150,000) and were replaced or they either weren’t affected in the end, but I’m not sure I understood the details correctly.

Can anyone advise me in this? Really stuck with this puzzle. Thank you

You can see that the cover was pretty close after a lot of rubber mallet/wood block work, but it wasn’t easy to get to that point and it didn’t seem quite right. Can those dowels be removed (if I can manage that) and I’d just use the bolts to locate the cover to the block?

 

Someone told me I might be dealing with the 2003 oil pump problem and here’s their message, but this is at odds with what someone else told me about these engines being replaced or unaffected by the issue.

“Don't muscle the front cover on, or you will be replacing broken oil pump gears in short order. Don't ask me how I know this. Some 03 Discovery II motors had the holes for the dowel pins that locate front cover to the block drilled in the wrong location. Back when I worked on these engines years ago, I had a tool made for aligning the front cover. It was basically a long shaft clamped installed in place of the crankshaft. it had a "nose" that matched the outer diameter of the larger oil pump gear. Anyone who knows how to run a lathe can make this tool in 10 minutes. Essentially, you would yank the dowel pins, remove the oil pump from the the front cover, align the front cover correctly and re-drill the holes for the dowel pins. You can use either plugs or epoxy to plug the outside part of the hole in the front cover after drilling. Use a stopper on the drill not to go too deep. Good finish is important for locating dowel pins, so drill undersize and use a reamer to get the hole to the right size with smooth finish. If you want to get fancy, tig weld the old hole in the block shut before re-drilling. Otherwise you can just use epoxy with aluminum flakes in it. It shouldn't take more than an hour to do this, including making the special tool on the lathe.”

I’m just not sure what to do about that special tool, finding someone to make it and drilling the holes for the dowels perfectly if that’s really what needs to be done…

 

Remove the center hub from the oil pump gears and see if it goes on with no hub in the cover. If it does, then you did not have the gears aligned. If it does not, then you may have a dowel pin issue but it would be with your new cover not the pins because your factory cover came off fine. You could also doublecheck if your old cover goes on fine as a way of checking your installation technique.

 

Thank you sir, I tried a few things and it’s definitely the dowel pins/holes. The gear is on the key, but it’s getting caught on the pins and won’t slide on. I’m not sure exactly how much effort it usually takes, but I can see that one of the holes in the cover is contacting enough to start scraping it. I don’t know if I should just hammer it on (really would take some effort since I had been using the rubber mallet and it wasn’t going on easily at all).

I’m not sure how precisely the dowel pins need to line up the cover and if I can just drill them out a little bit. It looks like a 5/16” bit is the closest I’ve got, but if it’s metric, it’s 8mm. 5/16 wasn’t sliding in and that’s 7.9mm. Do I dare drill into this thing? I don’t know how precisely all this needs to fit together, so I’m always worried that I’ll do something a hair off and it’ll break the engine. If that won’t happen, I could try to drill down as carefully as I can. It seems one of the dowel holes is somewhat OK, but the other is really too narrow. I know some pros use a lathe or reaming tools, but I don’t have anything that’ll do that other than a drill bit, which should be OK for aluminum. If I need an 8mm bit I’ll get that, but it looks like 5/16 will be pretty close.


Key in gear

5/16 bit in dowel hole

Dowel hole damage


These images show a few more things that might be relevant



Old and new covers appear identical

Polished surface on block seems different than cover gasket surface

Dowel pin stopping installation

Other dowel pin - seems to be less tight than the upper pin

Pinched gasket from AB - not sure if it’s OK to use it

Note crease

Thanks for helping. I’m totally stuck here.

 

These images show the chamfer and the bit more clearly - I think the bit will leave the chamfer and only shave a bit of the hole itself. The dowel pins are chamfered as well, so that should help get them in even if a bit of the chamfer on the hole is lost. I’m pretty much ready to try drilling it with the 5/16” bit. I was advised that I can use the harmonic damper to help line everything up, then put in all the bolts and torque them right away with Right Stuff on them and on the gasket. I figure that the bolts and damper shaft should line up the pump properly, so hopefully it’ll run smoothly for a long time after this. If not, I guess it’ll break the oil pump, cause low oil pressure which I’d see on the gauge and I’d have to do all this again… I just can’t tell if I’m making a big deal out of simply widening the holes or if I have to treat this like I could be replicating the 2003 oil pump failure issue by messing with the dowels without laser guidance. Please advise! Thank you

 

If it where me I would not drill it as it’s possible you risk putting stress on the oil pump, very much like the issue on the death range 03 vehicles. I would either exchange the cover for a new one or just get a good used cover from Will Tillery, Goldwing, Roverland parts, etc. The cover should slip right on without much effort provided the crank key is lined up. The pinch on the gasket it fine.

 

The issue is whether the dowel hole is too small or offcenter or both. If it is only too small, you could drill it with no issues. If it is off center at all it could be a minor problem or it could cause excessive wear or breakage to the oil pump. At this point it is still in warranty so I would send it back under warranty.

 

Thanks, I'll try to return the SKP cover. Rockauto said it's up to the manufacturer since their policy is 30 days. I can't be sure exactly what's wrong with it and I don't want to recreate the 2003 oil pump problem here.

Atlantic British has a cover (product photo shows "Hobourn" on it). I imagine theirs is trustworthy, but if not, please let me know. I'd rather a new one since mine cracked and I'm worried about that happening with a used one. I was told to install a Corteco seal in the SKP. Is that necessary for the AB cover? Can I remove the seal and reuse it or is it destroyed? I could just get a new one. It was a bitch to remove it without a seal puller. It's in there with black RTV too.

The Glowshift oil pressure sensor is in the SKP cover too. I'm not sure how I can safely remove it - heat gun? Hoping that won't damage the sensor though. The water pump is also on the cover, bolted in with black RTV and on the gasket.

It looks like the front cover is different for the GEMS and Bosch engines since AB sells different versions for the Discovery 2. All I know is that mine has secondary air, the vehicle VIN is a 2003 in the oil pump problem range and when I removed the sump and turned the engine, I saw that "4.6" is marked somewhere, I believe it's on one of the piston connecting rods or counterweight. I'm guessing that whatever happened with this vehicle, it's still got a Bosch 4.6 in it and this is the correct front cover:

https://www.roverparts.com/engine/fr...ers/LJR000220/

Why do they Loctite the oil pump gear plate on without packing the gears with petroleum jelly?

Should I get a new Corteco seal, try to remove and reuse mine (might get damaged) or trust the seal in the AB part? The benefit is that theirs is installed by a factory, so it should be in the right place, but I'm not sure of the quality of the seal and I could use silicone to seal it better. Someone had told me "make sure you use a Corteco seal - remove whatever seal is there and put a Corteco seal in" and that stuck with me.

Will I need another Glowshift sensor or can this one be removed and reinstalled?

 

Unfortunately SKP is pushing me back to rockauto and it's unlike rockauto will help since it's been about 13 months, so I got screwed... I bought the AB cover today and I'll try to fit it on before doing anything else since I've been told they should fit easily, so I'll just have to see what happens. It's shipping from the east coast, so it'll be a week and I'll have to just nervously hope the problem with the SKP cover is entirely to do with the SKP cover. If the dry fit test goes OK, I think I'll just use the seal the cover comes with, install the water pump, install the oil pressure sensor, pack the gears of the oil pump with jelly and use black right stuff silicone on the gasket. Hopefully that'll do it. Then I'll clean up the bottom of the engine to install the pickup tube and sump.

 

I don’t know what to do. I have a bad injury and it’s hard to do any of this, not that I don’t have the strength, but it’s a leg injury that makes it very painful to get to this and strain to get under the hood, especially with the front end raised.

I now have a Eurospare front cover from Atlantic British - that’s what they sell these days. It’s not fitting properly. One dowel pin goes in easily (the SKP cover wasn’t fitting onto this dowel pin), but the other pin won’t fit into the new cover when hit with a rubber mallet. From what I’ve been told, this should slide on easily, but I’m really having to fight with it using a rubber mallet to get anywhere and it doesn’t seem like it’s going to fit on easily, which is the same issue the other had.

I’m really struggling here... Any help is appreciated.