'03 Discovery II with 133k miles. Timing cover gasket is bad and I'm doing the repair a few hours at a time after work. Currently have the oil pan off and about to take off the timing cover...

Question is, Other than lining up the camshaft marks with the crankshaft gear, is there anything i need to do to hold the camshaft lined up with the crankshaft for when I'm loosening the camshaft gear bolt? Will it all just stay in place? I'd like to change the timing chain since i have it all apart but I'm a little scared of taking it apart and it all advance/retard on me while working on it. The RAVE manual doesn't seem to mention much about holding it all together while doing this repair.

 

have you broken free the bolt on the crankshaft yet?
the chain will hold the cam and crank from turning.

I would inspect the oilpump while i was there, a lot have showed up with broken outer ring gears.

 

Its quite easy when its apart. The top and bottom gear are marked and all you have to do is line up the marks facing each other, top pointing down and bottom pointing back up at it.

 

I've already taken the crankshaft pulley off; was pretty easy with the belt technique. I'm also planning on changing the oil pump gears, that seems fairly straightforward. So it sounds like it wont move around once i loosen the gear bolt.

 

Question, After i removed my oil pickup from the engine I moved back up to survey what I needed to unbolt from my timing cover. I came back down under the truck and found what looks like a long spacer on the ground. Seems like it came from within the receptacle the oil pickup goes into or the crankshaft area of the engine. I can't find in the RAVE manual where it fits in and have attached an image of it. Can anyone tell me where this part comes from? It was covered in oil just like everything else in the bottom end of the motor.

 

That's the spacer for the oil pick up tube bolt.

You don't have to worry about messing up the timing as long as you keep the marks lined up when you remove the chain and put it back. It was surprisingly fool proof when I did it. It takes quite a bit of effort to rotate the engine, jiggling on the gears won't turn it.

 

Ah I see. So is it the spacer for the sump side of the pickup just above the oil screen? I can't think of a spot near the timing cover for it.

Manual shows to just use the crank bolt to spin the gears. That should be straightforward.

 

yes; you can use the crank bolt, but if you dont go rolling the engine over with out the chain the marks should be pretty close to begin with.