there are bolts on the water pump and timing cover that pass threw water passages they should have sealer installed on them, the RAVE tells you which one should have sealer.

 

Well, I dug in saturday and what I thought should only be a day project at the most has turned in to a bit pain in the butt. I got 3 bolts out of the cross member and the other 5 were impossible to remove. I ended up rounding the heads off 'em and had to buy the bolt extractor kit... didn't work. Last night I decided to dremel the remaining bolt heads off and got the cross bar off. There is one bolt on the oil pan that was near impossible to get to because of what I think were the transmission cooler lines.

After a bit of swearing and scratching my head, I put an extension on my extension on my ratchet and was finally able to get to the bolt. I'm a bit concerned about getting it back on and being able to torque it later. Also, I have the disco on ramps. I couldn't imagine doing this job with out the ramps but the oil pan wasn't particularly easy to get off due to clearances. I'm thinking that when re-installing, the gasket may be hard to keep in place. Should I jack the body up a bit even though it's up on ramps already?

Now the next PIA is to get the crankshaft bolt out... going to try a 1x3 wedged in the crankshaft like others have suggested unless someone has an easier solution. It's -11 right now so the garage may be a bit hard to heat today.

 

The cross member is known to cause much swearing. I should probly start spraying mine with PB Blast now in case I ever have to drop it.

I imagine the crank bolt will be almost as much fun.

Good luck!

 

I bought a 400 ft/lb low profile pneumatic impact wrench which I think might fit om the space available to remove the crank shaft bolt now that the fan's out. Does anyone see why I shouldn't use it or does anyone have experience that this is a good idea? I think I caused confusion in earlier posts but I was asking about the tool to install the front engine oil seal (not the timing cover gasket). Does this seal really need a special tool?

 

I used a regular stubby impact to remove mine, fit even with the radiator in place. If you had jacked the body rather than putting it on stands the oil pan would come out easier, I never removed the cross brace.

 

Well, my new Northern Tools Klutch impact wrench made easy work of the crank shaft bolt! Following the RAVE, I got the timing cover off but after removing all 9 bolts I couldn't pull it off. I ended up pulling the water pump and then taking out 1 or 2 other remaining bolts to get the cover off. Did I just misinterpret the RAVE or is the diagram of the 9 bolts wrong?

I'm home again tomorrow so its time to pull and replace the timing chain and gears, oil pump gears and then put her back together. I had no problems with overheating and am wondering if I should just replace the water pump now while its off. I was not able to pressure test the system (couldn't find an adapter that fit properly) so I don't know where my original leak was coming from. I did buy a new pump just in case.

 

I would throw it on if you have it