I have a leaking front main seal on my 2003. Have the parts to do it and the oil pan gasket if needed. Also have the front timing cover gasket, timing chain and gears. Truck has 155K on it. I am selling the truck and have disclosed the front main seal leak. I would like to give prospective buyers a realistic estimate of time to DIY the front seal at minimum,...and if they want to go further, what would the oil pan gasket add time wise,....and then what would the timing cover, gears and chain add if they chose to do that as well.

Brian in San Antonio.

 

The oil pan needs dropped to get the front cover off.
The front cover has 3 studs on it's bottom side, that go through the oil pan, and have nuts on them.
The studs can be removed and replaced with bolts.
Time will vary by skill.
Any mechanic can do it easy in a few hours.
It's also a good job for someone that's learning, the whole truck is pretty simple, in a good way.

 

You can do the front crank shaft/harmonic balancer seal fairly easily without dropping the pan or pulling the timing cover. I just did mine, whole front and lower of engine was coated with oil/crud. No special tools required. An oil pan gasket usually won't crap out, it's usually the front seal, head, valve cover or the damn steering pump. Oil leaks usually don't run up an engine so you can deduce the leak alot of times just by that.

 

Yes you can, but he said he has a timing chain and gears too

 

Six, Rabbit was responding to my last sentence or two where I mentioned that I wanted primarily an estimate on the front seal,...........and then if the buyer was interested, some idea on the additional work, since I was including those parts for preventative future maintenance.

Thanks to both of you.

 

It took me the better part of eight hrs to do all of the front end gaskets including the cleaning of parts. If just the front main seal, probably 2-3 if never doing it before.