Ok, I told you guys that I would keep you updated and now have another question. First of all how do you tell if your pump is bad, is there a distinct sign? Second, i just want a second opinion on the dowel prob. My pins look fine and I was wondering if anybody here has just removed the pins from the block. Wouldn't that take care of the problem. The other bolts should hold the seal in place just fine shouldn't it. I just have a feeling that my pump was fine and that it was just the sensor, oh well!

 

I do not know if there is any way to tell if the dowel pins are out of alignment just by looking at them.
But you can tell by looking at the inside of the front engine cover, the holes that the pins go in will be elongated.

How do you tell if your oil pump has failed?
By doing a oil pressure test.

The dowel pins are what keeps every thing aligned properly, if they did not need to be there then they would not be there.

 

I'll check the front cover. Wouldn't the other nine bolts and the crank keep everything lined up? It seems like that would take care of the misalignment problem as well.

 

I have no idea, sorry.

 

Honestly I have no better idea than the next hack. That being said. Often those dowels line up the holes until proper torque is able to be achieved. If you removed it by grinding it off or whatever, then put minimal pressure on the bolts wouldn't that give it the proper alignment? Maybe those dowels were put there for production when they are just banging those motors out the door.
It may be worth a shot.

 

I'm late to the party, but I assume that you're talking about an '03?

My oil pump failed 10k ago, and will probably fail again at some point.

With as many '03s as there are on the road and given the cost of replacing the engine (the only known proper fix), I'm surprised that someone hasn't manufactured an adapter plate of some sort. They'd probably make a few thousand.

Which leads me to think that it can't be easily done or someone would have cashed in.

But don't let that disuade ya. If you come up with a fix, let me know! I'll be among the first in line.

 

I think there was a guy on Disco Web that re machined some dowel pins for an 03 trying to fix the problem.

 

dude,

pull the pins the front cover is aligned by the crank also and the 9 bolts holding the cover is more than enough.

no need to get techinical, besides the dowels are the problem causer. removing the mis aligned pins wont hurt and all they do is hold the gasket and cover on the block untill you bolt them down.

No one else can argue that the oil pump aligns on the crank key first!!!

pull the pins and run it.

 

Not doubting you or anything, but if it were that simple why didn't LR go this route instead of doing the entire entire swap for their warranty repairs?

I'd imagine the LR engineers would have given it consideration.

But then, it was probably the same lot who mismachined them in the first place...

It's going to fail, sooner or later, anyway. Can't hurt to try.

 

They have been pulled and everything seems to be fine so far. Thanks for the pump discoman, I had to use my cover because its supposed have 3 studs out the bottom for the oil pan. No big deal! Oil pans all cleaned out and should start it up tomorrow after I fill everything back up. Cross your fingers and hope for another 90+... Any word on your truck?
thanks guys!!