Timing Cover

F-150speed · Post by **F-150speed** » Wed Sep 07, 2011 11:47 pm

So long story short, coolant leaking at a steady stream from the water pump area of my 94 5.0 F-150. At this time I'm not sure if it is the pump to cover gasket or the cover to block gasket. I know it isn't the pump itself because it's not leaking from the weep hole. I did see coolant pooled in the valley to the drivers side rear of the top of the water pump. Also once the water leaked down to a certain point that looked pretty close to level to the top of the water pump the leaking stopped... I then added about 3 gallons of water to the radiator and it seemed like as soon as I added it, it started leaking again. I topped off the radiator and overflow tank and put the radiator cap on loosely and drove home with the heater on full blast. The idea was to try to keep the the cap loose and run the heater to keep the coolant cool and keep the pressure down hoping to loose less coolant. I made it the 10 miles back home. I'm really hoping its the water pump gasket because I hear the timing cover gasket is a royal biatch to change. Anybody have any pointers if I have to change the timing cover gasket?

philofab · Post by **philofab** » Thu Sep 08, 2011 7:23 am

Timing cover gasket isn't too hard. It just a pain to deal with getting it on and off sometimes due to the oil pan and crank. Lots of room to work in.

Don't be surprised if the coolant ate through the timing cover due to electrolysis.

I put them together with Toyota FIPK seal packaging. Stuff is awesome.

F-150speed · Post by **F-150speed** » Thu Sep 08, 2011 11:46 am

I just got it over to where I can work on it and put the hose in the radiator and turned it on slow. It's leaking from the gasket between the timing cover and the block, to the drivers side of the water pump, just below the distributor. Man, I hope the oil pan gasket comes off in one piece I really don't want to have to lift the motor to get the pan off. I don't have an engine hoist. And I really hope that it didn't eat the timing cover...I don't want to know what that is gonna cost. From my estimate its already gonna be $140 or so.

AussieRod · Post by **AussieRod** » Thu Sep 08, 2011 2:19 pm

F-150speed wrote:I just got it over to where I can work on it and put the hose in the radiator and turned it on slow. It's leaking from the gasket between the timing cover and the block, to the drivers side of the water pump, just below the distributor. Man, I hope the oil pan gasket comes off in one piece I really don't want to have to lift the motor to get the pan off. I don't have an engine hoist. And I really hope that it didn't eat the timing cover...I don't want to know what that is gonna cost. From my estimate its already gonna be $140 or so.

Loosen all the pan bolts to the last few threads, then pry the pan down gently to rest on the underside of the bolt heads. This will allow you the space to work on the T cover and hopefully not lose the pan gasket. It will allow you to seal the joint much easier, too. Works for me.

F-150speed · Post by **F-150speed** » Thu Sep 08, 2011 4:13 pm

Thanks Aus...little bad news to report...apparently the last person to replace the water pump didn't use anti-seize on the threads of the 2 bolts that go through the water pump and timing cover to the block because I snapped both of them off. Luckily they snapped right at the head of the bolt so if I can get the pump and t cover off I should have plenty of meat left to try to get a hold of.

Post by **SteveG** » Thu Sep 08, 2011 4:30 pm

Severely corroded and/or broken timing cover bolts are super common on these. The problem is lack of maintenance (and an inherent result of design). Replace the coolant often to avoid this.

Replace any questionable bolts now while it's apart.

AussieRod · Post by **AussieRod** » Fri Sep 09, 2011 1:00 am

SteveG wrote:Severely corroded and/or broken timing cover bolts are super common on these. The problem is lack of maintenance (and an inherent result of design). Replace the coolant often to avoid this.

Replace any questionable bolts now while it's apart.

X 2. I replace those bolts with stainless steel bolts and use CAT copper anti-sieze. NEVER EVER had a problem since.

300 · Post by **300** » Fri Sep 09, 2011 7:59 am

A timing cover gasket kit usually comes with the little pieces of pan gasket that you need and the rubber section that goes in the cover and seals to the pan. Should also have the front crank seal, cover to block seal, water and fuel pump gaskets. I have never had to drop the pan to change one. Biggest hassle is getting the balancer off and those broken bolts. Then you have to find those freak size long replacement bolts. If things were so bad that the gasket blew out at the block, I would look long and hard at that cover, it is likely corroded.

hobbyturnedobsession · Fri Sep 09, 2011 8:46 am

Its worth changing the cover if its at all coroded. Trust me I had one go on my old 460 and it sucks.

F-150speed · Post by **F-150speed** » Fri Sep 09, 2011 9:45 am

Really no progress to report...I went and got the timing cover gasket kit and an oil pan gasket just in case and an oil filter...seems like a good time to change my oil. I still don't have the water pump off... the bolts rusted and expanded inside the holes of the water pump. I tried prying it off, I tried tapping it with a hammer where the bolts are to loosen that stuff up, I even got to the point where I said to hell with it ill just buy another water pump and beat on the old one for an hour with a 3 lb dead blow. I got it to loosen up a little. I was at the end of my rope last night and after I called it quits for the night I called a friend of mine that has been a mechanic for 30+ years. The second he mentioned the word "torch" I kicked myself in the ass for not thinking about it so today I'm gonna heat it up with a torch and see if that will help me get it off of there. I'm waiting to get the timing cover off so I can see what the inside of it looks like. Hopefully I wont have to get a new one. I'm gonna look at my timing chain while I'm in there. I might as well change it now while I have everything torn apart if its not looking perfect. Also, I need to flush my cooling system. The coolant came out pretty rusty looking. I did notice that the coolant tube that comes out of the top of the throttle body for the EGR cooler was rusted out on the bottom of the bead that is rolled into it .

hobbyturnedobsession · Fri Sep 09, 2011 9:49 am

Thats pretty common. You can actually get rid of that. From what I've heard thats to keep the intake from freezing over. I have that same problem, I just ran the line farther down from the bead rolled rusted lip. Also, make sure you buy a good water pump, do not buy an autozone or o'reilly, get a napa or better a motorcraft. The timing chain and sprockets will only run you like 35 bucks, its definately worth it.

F-150speed · Post by **F-150speed** » Fri Sep 09, 2011 9:55 am

Do I need to change the whole set or can I get away with just changing out the chain? I normally go with Napa. Around here the Schucks/ O'reilly people don't know a tire from a throttle body so I stopped dealing with those idiots a long time ago. They just opened a Vatozone up here but I wasn't impressed with them when I lived in AZ so I haven't even stopped in there.

hobbyturnedobsession · Fri Sep 09, 2011 11:25 am

Buy the whole set. All you'd need is a damn chipped tooth. (been there too)

F-150speed · Post by **F-150speed** » Fri Sep 09, 2011 8:42 pm

Used the torch to heat up the old water pump and finally got it off. I put vice grips on the exposed bolts and twisted them out of the block and had to pound them back and forth to get them through the timing cover. I got a new water pump because I noticed excessive play in the shaft. Bought a new timing set too because the gear on the crank shaft had a little play on the woodruff key and the chain had more play in it than I liked. Got some new grade 8 zinc coated bolts for the water pump from Ace Hardware. I used liberal amounts of anti-seize on the bolts that went into the block. So far so good. I had to leave the truck and go to football practice (I'm an assistant coach for my son's pee wee team) but I'm about to head back and try to get it finished up. The only thing I don't like about the way it is set up is that one of those bolts that broke (went through the water pump and timing cover into the block), the one on the drivers side, had an alignment pin in the top of it. I'm thinking all it was for was to help you hold the accessory bracket on that side so you could get the bolts started. It wasn't threaded or anything it just located the bracket. I don't have that now so if anyone thinks of a reason why it would be bad to not have that anymore let me know...for now I'll just deal with not having it and have to man up and hold it in place while I start the bolts.

F-150speed · Post by **F-150speed** » Mon Sep 12, 2011 11:47 am

I got it all buttoned up finally. I think the heat got to me a bit though yesterday. I was in a hurry to finish it up because it was hot and I had to get cleaned up in time for dinner with the inlaws so I put oil in it and quickly realized that I forgot to put the oil pan drain plug back in. Felt pretty stupid for that. Luckily I only got a quart in before I realized it. The thing that really pissed me off though was I got it all done and filled up the radiator and looked under the truck to make sure all was well...it wasn't. I found that the hose that comes out of the water pump and goes into a tube that routes around the alternator to the heater core had a couple pin holes in it. Of course it's a $40 part you can ONLY get from ford and they have to overnight it. I'm half tempted to cut the crimp fitting off the one side and replace it with a chunk of heater hose so if it goes bad again I can replace it without spending another $40.

hobbyturnedobsession · Mon Sep 12, 2011 1:06 pm

I'm not positive if the bronco has the same, but I know mine has heater hose all through the water pump to the heater core.

F-150speed · Post by **F-150speed** » Tue Sep 13, 2011 10:08 am

Yeah I'm not sure either...I would assume it is possibly a 5.0 specific thing. Because of the way the accessory bracket is on that side the only way the found apparently was to run the hose into a hard line to get it to route close enough to the alternator to keep it out of the belt. It has a bracket on it that bolts to the alt. to keep it from moving around. My bracket is broke so I was gonna buy a new one anyways but cash is SUPER tight this month so I think I'll just have to hack that crimp fitting off and clamp a hose on there. I kinda like the idea of being able to change out that piece of hose later if I need to anyways.

hobbyturnedobsession · Wed Sep 14, 2011 8:32 am

Sounds good as long as everything clears. Easy field fix.

F-150speed · Post by **F-150speed** » Wed Sep 14, 2011 1:42 pm

Just fixed the hose. I got a foot of heater hose and 2 hose clamps from Napa for 3 1/2 bucks. Way better than $40 the new part. Cut off the one end of the tube and cut a piece of hose to fit. It's kinda hard to get in there to tighten the clamps and you have to be carefull on how you place the clamps but other than that it works like a charm. The section I used is about 5" out of that foot I bought so I have an extra piece in the tool box just in case.

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