Thanks to all who weighed in on my recent "Fix it or Dump it" thread. We've decided to keep it so I'm gearing up for HG, Timing Cover & Chain/Water Pump plus 3 Amigo fix. But I need to wait another month or so when we'll have a spare vehicle available.

The coolant leak(s) have been at very slow rate for a long time (no puddles on the floor, etc) and we have no long trips planned so continuing to drive it as is for a while would be desirable. However, I read somehwere that the timing cover leak in particular could result in coolant in oil with no warning and resultant engine ruin.

Is that a widely-held position? Not looking for any guarantees - just more knowledge about the risk level. I suppose I could do the front end work over a weekend ASAP but would prefer to do everyting at once in a few months.

Thanks in advance.

Ron

 

Observe the back of the timing cover. The gasket surrounds the left, right, top, and those large water channels from the water pump. The gasket is thin. The cooling system can be 10-15 PSI when running. The oil at that area of the timing cover is splash lubrication. But the area from water channel to oil area is only 1 side of the 4 sides of each water passage.

You could install some Bars stop leak, which does not use sodium silicate (water glass) as a temporary fix. You could check oil level daily (should not be rising, should not look like milkshake.) and coolant level (should not be dropping, should not have oil in it). If coolant floods the oil, then park and make repairs.



While in there, you may want to change the oil pump, and consider the timing chain as well. A kit such as this one from AB is about $110.

 

Thanks Buzz - much appreciated and the photos and links are very helpful. I priced out the AB kit that included the timing chain & gears but did not see the oil pump version - I'll add it to the list.

I've been avoiding any stop leak additives when we were thinking of selling (I just dislike looking at brown coolant soup instead of nice translucent orange.) However it sounds like Bars may be worth a shot now that we're keeping the truck.

We'll keep an eye out for the contamination symptoms.

Thanks again.

 

IMHO the orange (if Dexcool) would be a good thing to flush out and replace with green 50/50 premix, like Peak. Dexcool, if exposed to air, or mixed with other stuff (top off by Lube-Yo-Ride, LLC), or just old, will turn into a sludge that clogs radiator and can decompose things like coolant cap.

 

Thanks once more!

I was curious about that since seeing Mike's Major Service sticky mention green coolant. We bought this truck at 35K miles from the OO who had full service records from the dealer. It had clean orange coolant in it so I assumed Dex was OE and have been using it since. I've evperienced the orange caking issue on the left valve cover (Throttle body heater leak) and always thought it was weird how hard that stuff is to remove.

No overheating issues yet but I'll be sure to switch after the repairs.

BTW this probably should be a new thread but Mike and others here keep advising 8mm magnecore wires but AB has 7mm in their DII kit. Who's right?

Thx

Ron

 

8mm wire will hold up a lot better with the heat under the hood, you can also try kingsborne, I just bought a set for my P-38 and they look real nice, fit well and are less the AB 7mm.
IGN 790 Kingsborne Spark Plug Wires Ignition Wire Set - Kingsborne Ignition Spark Plug Wires Sets made in the USA

PS if you go with the kingborne I would order new wire separators for $14 T80 Assortment of 8mm Separators 2-3-4 hole - Kingsborne Ignition Spark Plug Wires Sets made in the USA I had a hell of a time getting them to fit in the stock separators because of there insulation, a problem I did not have when I put the magnacores on.