There are also four fasteners on the oil pan that thread into the timing cover. These must be removed before attempting to pull the cover away from the block. With all fasteners removed the cover should pop right off with only a few taps from a plastic mallet and minimal prying.
After the timing cover assembly is removed, store it with the various sized bolts that go with it for easier reassembly.
Now that you have the timing cover removed, you can see the timing chain and gears for the first time. Depending on the reason for this engine needing a rebuild, it is always interesting to note how much free play is in the timing chain before you replace it. Careful inspection during disassembly can help resolve many mysteries.
Next pull the oil slinger, which is just a piece of stamped sheet metal, off of the crankshaft snout.
Go to the single center bolt in the cam sprocket and remove it. It has a 5/8-inch head and might be tight enough to justify the use of an impact wrench. Be certain to make note of the position of the thick washer behind the cam bolt, and the fuel pump eccentric.
With the cam sprocket center bolt and washer removed, you can usually get the timing sprockets and chain off with some wiggling, prying from two sides at the same time, and perhaps a light tap or two with a plastic mallet. Brute force is rarely, if ever, needed; the trick is to keep both sprockets parallel with one another and even with the block as you go back and forth until the one on the cam comes loose. Then you can remove the chain and cam sprocket and concentrate on the crankshaft sprocket, which may be stuck to the keyway. If you find a large flat split washer as a spacer behind the cam sprocket, discard it now. None of the replacement timing sets use them, and trying to reinstall one with a new timing set will cause serious interference problems. Since the timing set is almost always going to be replaced, you can use a chisel between the teeth to split or spread that crankshaft sprocket if needed, but it should slide off with a bit of effort.
Remove the Oil Pan and Pump
If you’re working on an engine stand, it’s now time to spin it over and remove the oil pan. The pan is retained by lots of 5/16-inch bolts. Make sure you get all of them out before trying to pry the pan loose.
The pan gasket will have become pretty well stuck to the block after time in service. I often use a razor blade or knife to walk around the sides and try to break that seal a bit before prying on the easily bent sheet-metal pan itself.
Badly damaged oil pans should be replaced; they are readily available. This one has seen better days.
If your engine has a windage tray it will be sandwiched between the pan and the block with an oil pan gasket on each side.
You must separate the windage tray from the block using a scraper to split the gasket free.
With the pan removed, it’s a quick task to remove the oil pump pickup screen and the pump itself, two bolts each. Then remove the oil pump drive; it will lift up with your fingers. This engine shows a lot of debris from deteriorated and fractured nylon teeth from an old timing chain set.
On everything beyond the lowest-cost effort we highly recommend replacing those items, but hang on to them for now.
track of which bolts go there.
