Thank you, I really appreciate that, but I have my original cover that I should try like Best advised first since that was on the engine and it’ll tell me a lot of it doesn’t fit back on easily. I just need to wait for a day I’m not in severe pain and I’ll clean the old cover and see what happens. After that, I’ll probably remove the pins - I’ll just try to be careful doing that, maybe ice to help it contract and then pulling with a slight twist. They seem like they’re really stuck in there. When the new ones arrive I’ll see if they fit into the SKP cover easily or not, then I’ll just have to try putting the cover on without the pins and seeing how far it goes. If it goes all the way on, I’ll try to dry-fit it with the pins, then with silicone on the gasket… I really need this to work. I’m hoping I don’t have to drill the cover. From what I understand, this has to be extremely precise and there’s no way I can do anything that precise with a drill.

 

@neuropathy If I can suggest take the cover that fits "best" and only remove the pin that is binding,then remove other pins as required. People have had mixed results with no pins from what I have read.

Here is a video of using the correct tool, you may be able to rent one.
Use a bunch of penetrating oil and a bit of heat before trying either vice grips or the method below.
Or possibly this method, but use a piece of wood between the hammer and engine block for protection. https://www.enginebuildermag.com/201...law-hammer-13/

 

Thanks, but I don’t think there’s enough room for that tool between the block and radiator. I still bought new pins in case it helps in some way, maybe just testing them in the different covers - not hammering them in, but seeing if they slide in easily as I’m told they should. Will twisting the dowels out of the block with pliers be bad? Will it even be possible? I’m wondering if the damage on the SKP cover hole caused by the dowel will be an issue at this point. I could try to file that part down. I’m going to try to clean the old cover a bit and see if it fits on tomorrow, if I’m not in too much pain to do that. Can dowel pins really get bent? They’re pretty thick and I don’t think I did anything that extreme when wiggling and pulling the old cover off. I keep hearing that it’s a 2003 problem and also that there’s no way it’s a 2003 problem. Are the pins/holes supposed to be 6mm? 8mm? 5/16? I could drill the holes out… Is there any way to identify a bad 2003 engine vs a replacement just so I can positively rule that out, so I know I’m not trying something that’s impossible? Would a dealership know for certain if somehow it’s a faulty 2003 engine that should have been replaced and maybe they’d be able to resolve this? I don’t mean to doubt anyone, but I’m totally lost and I don’t know what’s happening. It’s just not sliding on like I was told I should expect it to. It’s not going on with a ton of effort behind it… I’ll try to fit the old cover back on and see what that tells me.

 

Maybe I’ll try this if needed - looks simple enough that I’ll be able to manage if they’re not stuck in there too badly to be removed this way. I’ll use a drum stick and large pliers to try to pop the dowels out.

 

@neuropathy just use lots of penetrating oil 1st around the dowels it may help.

This is how hard mine is to seat on my spare block for reference - note no crankshaft in the block but that does not change things much.

 

Mine definitely isn’t sliding on like that… it’s hitting the pins no matter how much I’ve tried aligning it and it can’t be slid on easily or even pushed on with a ton of effort and a mallet.

 

Hopefully this is the type of progress I’ll actually be able to work with and hopefully this information helps others, since I hadn’t seen anything about what I’ve just encountered.

New dowel pins from AB arrived today, so I tested them in all three covers I have (Eurospare from AB, SKP from RockAuto and Hobourn that was originally on the vehicle, which was cracked in an oil pressure test attempt when I tried fitting an adapter to it). The pins slid into the Eurospare and Hobourn cover very easily. It took some effort to get them into one hole on the SKP cover, but they went in. I visually compared the dowels in the block to the replacement dowels - they look the same. I noticed that about 3/5 of the pin go into the cover and the other 2/5 goes into the block.

As Best recommended, I I tried to fit the original Hobourn cover back on - I’m not sure if it’s the original cover, but that’s what was on the vehicle when I got it. I cleaned up the cover and attempted to fit it on without the oil pump gears. It wasn’t sliding on, but I noticed that the valley pan gasket was sticking out a few millimeters (at the very top of the timing cover) and it seemed to be interfering with the cover. It trimmed it back a millimeter or two with a razor (hopefully it won’t leak there, but I don’t think I cut into it enough for that - this was just gasket material hanging over the edge of the block). After that, the Hobourn cover went on fairly easily - took some effort, didn’t slide right on, but with some fairly light mallet hits it went on to a point I judged it would be alright.

I decided to try the SKP cover since I’ve already put a water pump on it, put an oil pressure sensor in it, Corteco seal and primed the oil pump gears with petroleum jelly. I haven’t done any of that with the Eurospare cover and I want to return that one to AB while I still can. RockAuto wouldn’t take the SKP back at this point and I’ve done all the preparation work on it already. It’s also half the price of the AB cover and both are made in China, if that matters.

The SKP cover didn’t go on easily and didn’t go on with light rubber mallet hits, but after some moderate hits, it seemed to go on well enough that I think I’ll be able to get it right with the gasket/black right stuff and turning the crank a bit to get it to align a bit more, then bolting it down and torquing the bolts soon after. When I’m doing the installation for real, I’ll hit it hard enough with the mallet that it should go on all the way. In my test, I’d hammered it until it was about a Smurf’s *** hair off of the mating surface on the block itself. It didn’t take too many hits or too much time to get it there.

You can imagine my joy seeing that it looks like it’s all going to be OK after all. I feel that when I’m doing the actual installation, hammering it a bit harder and hitting it more, won’t be any risk of breaking the cover holes or leaving it misaligned by drilling, reaming, etc.

At this point, I don’t think there’s any way this is a 2003 engine that has the dowel pin misalignment issue even though this vehicle’s VIN is within the affected range. I think the valley pan gasket on mine (could have been someone else’s repair or it could have been the factory work) was preventing the cover from going on beyond a certain point and caused it to have problems fitting on. I don’t think that’s the only issue as the SKP cover didn’t slide on easily despite replacement pins going in easily during a test, but I think it’ll be fine.

I plan to go ahead with this. Any advice to keep in mind is always welcome.

I’ll use black right stuff on the gasket (from AB - Britpart I believe) and Loctite 243 on the bolt threads. I think I’m supposed to torque these bolts pretty soon after they’re all in, which will take a bit since I have to apply loctite to them and the black right stuff will begin curing pretty quickly while I’m applying it to the entire gasket and fitting/hammering the cover into place, so I’ll pretty much just torque down after the cover is in place with all the bolts in.

I used black RTV on the water pump gasket and bolts and on the oil pressure sensor/adapter (glow shift parts) and when I installed the Corteco front engine seal so oil won’t seep through the outside diameter of the seal. Hopefully no issues with any of what I’ve done here? I’ve also packed the oil pump gears with petroleum jelly, including the voids like where the pickup pipe pumps from and the area behind the gears. I used Loctite 242 on the screws that go into the plate that covers the gears. I didn’t have any experience with Loctite and didn’t realize I was supposed to shake the bottle. It was a little watery at first, but I think it was opaque and blue enough for the most part as I went along. I think it’ll be alright.

Again, please let me know if you think this still hold and if it makes sense that the valley pan gasket can be trimmed back where it overhangs a bit - seems fine to me. I think that gasket says Victor Reyes on it and I believe those are OEM, although I don’t know if that’s factory work - there’s some grey goop sticking out in various places there.

Hopefully this information is useful to the community since this gave me a very hard time. It’ll be good to suggest that this can be an issue if anyone else has this sort of problem with a front cover installation.

I’m hoping everything goes well with this installation so I can continue making progress and getting running ASAP. I feel that I’m over the hill with this as I’d already got to the point I was installing new parts (timing chain was the last thing I did) rather than removing parts and preparing things. I’ll still have to clean some things like the bottom of the block mating surface and a lot of bolts, and, I’ll have to remove the upper intake to replace the coil packs/ignition wire, so there’s plenty of work still, but I think that’ll go alright.

Thank you all again

 

Someone showed me a picture of a seal that runs along the front edge of the valley pan. I’d looked at pictures of the valley pan gasket and it didn’t quite look like what I was seeing sticking out in the area on the front of the block, but now I see that lip is actually another part. I’ve been told mine has failed, which is why it’s interfering. I don’t think I can get into tearing things down that far at this point, so I’ll just run it and hope it doesn’t leak too bad there until the day I’m able to attempt the head gasket job when I feel that’s needed. Any input is welcome. Sharing this information in case it helps others in the future and to get opinions. The picture below isn’t mine - I’m pretty sure the only way to replace that is to remove the valve covers, valley pan gasket and a lot more, possibly even the cylinder heads? If there’s a way to get a new one in now without doing too much, I can do that. I can’t tell exactly how far over this rubber seal runs.

Maybe you can just remove the metal valley end clamp over the rubber valley end seal to replace it at any time, so right now might be a good time?

https://www.roverparts.com/engine/ga...seals/ERR7283/

https://www.roverparts.com/engine/ga...seals/ERR7282/

 

Good job on working through the oil cover issues! You might be able to replace the valley end gaskets without the main valley gasket but it all depends on how well everything is fused together and I would just order all the gaskets and plan to do it all at the same time. You shouldn't need to remove the cylinder heads:

 

Those lower valley pan rubber seals vary in quality. It does act as an oil seal to the F/R of the valley pan gasket and each corner of it has RTV to keep it sealed. You shouldn't hurt anything at all with just trimming it back a bit as the seal has a lip on each side front and back.