it is rather amazing what Rotella can do to an engine, they first time i pulled my intake it looked like typical 100k mile engine; after a year of Rotella when i pulled the intake the valley was clean as a wistle

 

I'm sure you all remember Savanna B's nightmare....makes it more than worth the effort. Obviously some line up perfect on their own and some don't.

 

So the project is moving along. I dropped off the heads at the machine shop yesterday afternoon then went back to the garage and pulled the sump and timing cover and hit my first snag. The crossmember bolts are not budging. I rounded one off. I'll let the pb blaster soak for a bit then heat them and try again. I'm going to try an extractor socket on the rounded one but if that doesn't do it I'll drill the head off. I still pulled the pan down so at least I could keep going. I swapped out the timing set, boy did that old chain seem slack. Then I went to pull the oil pump plate and hit my second snag. I messed up some of the screws. I got them all out but I need to replace a few. Not an easy screw to find. Hopefully I can find some today. I tried a local hardware store with a decent selection of fasteners but all they had for flathead metrics were slotted. I can't see those ever coming out again!

 

i believe the screw are posi-drive #3.
i had the same problem with my frame connector, the inserts in the frame broke off. I jacked the truck up in the front by the bull bar and had just enough room to drop it, i think i had to twist it sideways a little.

 

Thanks for the tip on jacking. I have OME heavy duty springs so I have some room to start, I'll see how high I can get it before I try to get the crossmember out. I can always pull the shocks if it stops lifting.


I just picked up some stainless screws for the pump at West Marine. Only place I found that had them. I'll get the timing cover and water pump in tonight and then wrestle with the pan. Hopefully I'll have it running for the weekend. Supposed to be hot here so it will be nice to take it out on the beach.

 

be sure to use loctite thread locker on the screws for the oil pump gears.

 

blue.

and I'm hoping you ordered a new front crank seal while you were ordering..just for good measure.

 

I'll use some blue Loctite. And the new seal came as part of the oil pump kit, along with a waterpump gasket. I had previously ordered VC gaskets and an intake gasket when I was planning to do just the wires, so now I have those left over plus an extra waterpump gasket because one came in the box with the new waterpump. The spare parts bin gets more full.

 

Good deal. Things to remember that I'm sure you will anyway but just a reminder...make sure you timing marks are lined up perfect and not a tooth off either way, soak the timing chain and gears down with clean oil or oil/vasoline or assembly lube so if you were to hit a snag along the way and it had to sit awhile exposed to damp air it would have some oil on it, put the beveled edge of your outer oil pump gear toward the front of the truck/cover, pack the oil pump gears with vasoline or a combination of oil/vasoline, grease the new front crank seal really well where it rides on the crank ,be sure your water pump sealing surface is clean as new, put some non hardening aviation sealer or a thin smear of rtv on the timing cover gasket and water pump gasket, put teflon tape or sealer on your bolts that go into the water jacket, and that's all I can think of at the moment.

 

OH CRAP - I had the oil pump back in by the time you posted this and I didn't check the position of the beveled edge on the outer gear. Is the housing machined to accept it backwards or is can it only go in one way? The cover plate fit perfectly and the pump spins easily.