NEW timing gears and chain. Ahhhhh, no more play in the chain.

Notice the chip in the original chain guide (arrow). Conventional wisdom says to replace the chain guide but if you do, it will simply happen again. And if it does, that chunk of plastic will fly around the inside of your engine as this one did. No thanks. I'll keep the original which is doing a fine job.

BTW, I found the plastic piece in the oil pan, chewed and mangled by the chain before it came to rest.

The lower gear is pressed on using the original center bolt and a collar. The timing gear sprocket is screwed on to 20 ft lbs and the dots top and bottom must line-up (see circles).

You may ask why I replaced the timing gear on an engine with just 102,000 miles. The original gear had some play but not a dangerous amount. But as long as I had to repair the oil pan it just made sense. When you get this far into an engine it is silly not to replace the basics. And in the end, a new timing set was only $35 at O'Reilly's and barely took 20 minutes to replace. This engine will have a nice long life now before it needs serious rebuilding.

[This message has been edited by Toddster (edited 11-13-2020).]

[This message has been edited by InTheLead (edited 03-01-2009).]

Getting there a little at a time. Today I spent a good portion of forever removing the ST-27 security screws from the timing mark plate. These bastards were designed by Satan. They are round head design for one thing, they are a rare screwball size for another. And if you happen to have a ST-27 bit (which I did) you will likely break it in half (which I did) trying to remove these damn things. SOoooooo, I used a hack saw to cut a groove into the head and removed them with a large screw driver and Vise-grip pliers. I'm using simple M6x100 screws with a Philips head to replace them.



OK, moving along I cleaned-up the timing cover (sans the timing guide plate) and installed it with a new gasket and some RTV. Then I added a remanufactured water pump ($16 at O'Reilly's). The price is great but you have one problem, the '88 didn't have the water outlet on that was used in earlier L44 motors. So you have to use a pipe wrench to get it off and you will trash the threads when you do it. So I had to tap the hole and use plenty of pipe thread tape on the cap, but it works. I also added a new front main seal.



Next I removed the lower intake and valve covers. I pressure washed the intake to get the grit off. And I was happy to see the valves were in great condition. Even the factory paint marks were still totally visible. The keepers, valve guides, rockers, etc. are all in great shape.



I rallied all the accessory parts and blasted them clean.



Finally, I took some old parts I had from my last 3.4 swap and put them on the engine. I use them as cleaning and painting masks; oil pan, valve covers, timing cover, disty plug, oil filter, various bolts and rubber plugs. I even have a set of crappy old spark plugs that have about 5 layers of paint on them by now.



I blasted the whole thing clean. Tomorrow I will shoot some engine paint on it and start assembling the outer engine again. This is NOT a full on resto. I am not sand blasting everything and grinding of flashing. I will do that when I completely rebuild it. I just want it to look reasonable for a 100K mile engine.

[This message has been edited by Toddster (edited 11-14-2020).]