99 5.0 Timing Cover Leak | Ford Explorer Forums - Serious Explorations

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99 5.0 Timing Cover Leak

supermidget

Member
Joined
July 11, 2013
Messages
41
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City, State
Arkansas
Year, Model & Trim Level
1999 EB Explorer 2wd V8
yay!! replaced a leaking lower radiator hose last weekend, made it 4 days leak free before my water pump gasket gave up, replaced it today, was leak free for a whole 15 minutes then all hell broke loose when water began spraying from the driver side of my timing cover!

i have been reading non stop about the job i am about to tackle and seem to come across alot of mixed opinions and very vague answers.

can a timing cover gasket be replaced in an afternoon by 1 person easily?

easily doable with the radiator in place or does it need to be pulled?

my truck is a 2wd, is there plenty of room up front to make dealing with the oil pan gasket issue manageable?

can i leave the short center bolts in my water pump and remove it intact or just say screw it and replace the gasket again?
 



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yay!! replaced a leaking lower radiator hose last weekend, made it 4 days leak free before my water pump gasket gave up, replaced it today, was leak free for a whole 15 minutes then all hell broke loose when water began spraying from the driver side of my timing cover!

i have been reading non stop about the job i am about to tackle and seem to come across alot of mixed opinions and very vague answers.

can a timing cover gasket be replaced in an afternoon by 1 person easily? Sure, but there are quite a few gotchas, so if you've never done this job before, take your time.

easily doable with the radiator in place or does it need to be pulled? Possible, but there isn't much room for the center bolt of the harmonic balancer remover/installer tool, so it has to be of the fairly short variety. The cheap ones that auto parts stores rent may be too long. If you are planning on using an impact wrench to remove the balancer (which is the easiest way), it has to be of the ultra-short variety, and you'll definitely need a remover with a short center bolt.

my truck is a 2wd, is there plenty of room up front to make dealing with the oil pan gasket issue manageable? No experience here (my truck is AWD), but common wisdom says yes. If you drop the oil pan, the job becomes much easier and you avoid the risk of ending up with an oil leak.

can i leave the short center bolts in my water pump and remove it intact or just say screw it and replace the gasket again? I believe so, but why? The timing cover gasket set includes the one for the pump.
 






yay!! replaced a leaking lower radiator hose last weekend, made it 4 days leak free before my water pump gasket gave up, replaced it today, was leak free for a whole 15 minutes then all hell broke loose when water began spraying from the driver side of my timing cover!

i have been reading non stop about the job i am about to tackle and seem to come across alot of mixed opinions and very vague answers.

can a timing cover gasket be replaced in an afternoon by 1 person easily?

Probably not, you should expect a couple bolts to go down fighting. Also its quite a bit of work to remove the fan clutch, water pump, radiator (remember, it's tricky to separate the radiator and condenser on the V8 models), pull the harmonic balancer, drop the oil pan, and finally remove the timing cover. Might as well put a new timing chain on while you're in there, though.

easily doable with the radiator in place or does it need to be pulled?

The only tool I had to remove the harmonic balancer bolt was an impact wrench, which required radiator removal. If you have some other way to do it, then it might work out.
my truck is a 2wd, is there plenty of room up front to make dealing with the oil pan gasket issue manageable?

Shouldn't be much of an issue to drop the oil pan for you.

can i leave the short center bolts in my water pump and remove it intact or just say screw it and replace the gasket again?

No point, these bolts aren't the ones that get stuck. I mean, I guess you could if you wanted to.
 






I just did this job a few months ago.

can a timing cover gasket be replaced in an afternoon by 1 person easily? Took two of us about 8 hours, with a lift and air tools. We are not pros, but are experience DIYers.

easily doable with the radiator in place or does it need to be pulled? We pulled the radiator - I would not want to try it with the radiator in place.

my truck is a 2wd, is there plenty of room up front to make dealing with the oil pan gasket issue manageable? It is manageable if you are careful and don't mess up the oil pan gasket. The oil pan can only be dropped 1-2 inches with the engine in the vehicle. However, that is enough; you just have to be really careful getting the oil pan gasket loose from the bottom of the timing cover. We took out all of the bolts; if I did it again I would loosen them all but leave some in to hold the gasket aligned. The two front ones on each side do have to come out, as they go into the timing cover itself.

can i leave the short center bolts in my water pump and remove it intact or just say screw it and replace the gasket again? Probably, but why?? Gasket set will include a water pump gasket. Expect to have problems with the longer bolts that go thru the pump and timing cover into the block. A couple of them are in the water jacket and will be rusted/corroded and be difficult to remove and/or need replacing. Your gasket kit should also include a new seal for the crankshaft harmonic balancer, so that will need to be pressed out/in. Good luck!
 






i don't expect any trouble out of the water pump bolts, i just had them out yesterday. i am going to try and do the timing cover removal with radiator in place just to save a few steps. i am working by myself and as it is my daily driver any time i can save the better to get it back on the road that much sooner.

i have plenty of diy experience but alot of it is centered around my GM mud trucks, i expect to run into a few snags due to my lack of knowledge about ford motors but hopefully it won't be to bad
 






yay!! replaced a leaking lower radiator hose last weekend, made it 4 days leak free before my water pump gasket gave up, replaced it today, was leak free for a whole 15 minutes then all hell broke loose when water began spraying from the driver side of my timing cover!

i have been reading non stop about the job i am about to tackle and seem to come across alot of mixed opinions and very vague answers.

can a timing cover gasket be replaced in an afternoon by 1 person easily?

If you don't have any problems.

easily doable with the radiator in place or does it need to be pulled?

I would pull the radiator just to avoid putting a hole in it doing the work...speaking from experience.


my truck is a 2wd, is there plenty of room up front to make dealing with the oil pan gasket issue manageable?

Not really. You can't drop the pan far enough do get it out, there just isn't enough space with the front crossmember and steering rack.[/quote]

can i leave the short center bolts in my water pump and remove it intact or just say screw it and replace the gasket again?

Yes. I did when I replaced the pump, and the timing cover still leaked. I didn't feel like tearing it all apart and cleaning and resealing it.

I personally didn't have any issues with timing cover bolts, but YMMV.
 






Did a little bit more today after work. Didn't touch it yesterday.

Down to the lower bolts and oil pan now and it's out. Balancer came off easy without a problem. Popped the center bolt with a breaker bar and used a Crows foot to slide the balancer off. Went pretty quick actually.

http://imgur.com/w2vdyG8
 






Well all done.

I found the problem as soon as i pulled off the timing cover. There was no old gasket!!! Just a tiny bit of old nasty rtv around the water ports.
 












Can't find where 4 timing bolts go help
 






There are 4 bolts that go UPWARD connecting the oil pan to the timing cover...don't forget those suckers or you will have leaks

5.0 timing cover usually takes me 4-5 hours UNLESS a bolt breaks off, which happens quite often. That can add another hour or another day....just depends on where it breaks
 






FYI, two of the bolts that go into the timing cover from the oil pan are also a different size than the rest of the oil pan bolts. The other two are the same size as the others.
 






10mm and 13mm heads on them
 






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