I am rebuilding a 98 4.3 4x4 and made a error. I put the cam keeper on the balance shaft and visa versa. I kept building up to the point of putting on the harmonic balancer before I turned the crank and had no movement. The balance shaft gear was bound on the cam keeper. I used a little sealant across the half circle at the base of the timing cover. Having to remove the oil pan and timing cover to backtrack to my error. The oil pan gasket is secure to the timing cover. Can I use this same (plastic) timing cover or will it leak?

I went ahead and fixed the keepers and the crank turns good now. I installed the same timing cover and got the oil pan gasket on and in place by sliding a screwdriver along the oil pan mating surface and the gasket just went into place nicely. I added some sealant to the base of the timing cover and the mating surface of the oil pan at the half circle as I did originally before mating the surfaces, however when I was putting the oil pan on some oil spilled onto the sealant before mating. Will this cause a problem?
Pictures of this project.
White1999 pictures by Chevy33pics - Photobucket

 

if it wasnt bone dry the sealant wont take, itll weep... and those covers are one time use, when u pull em off it usually breaks the plastic alighnment dowels off in the block and is no good. youve gone this far, if u doubt it then save yourself the head ache and make sure now while its easy ya know

 

I poured some oil over the cam after installing the oil pan the first time. I forgot about the oil in the pan when I went to re-install the pan. I was thinking the oil pan gasket by itself would be enough of a seal but I added the rtv in the corners of the half circles on each end of the block just for good measure. The oil pan gasket was fastened to the timing cover from the first install which made the pan install a little bit difficult but I thought the gasket fell into the grooves in the oil pan just fine. So trucktom, I agree the rtv will not mate to the pan due to the oil being spilled on it, but won't the pan gasket alone be the seal? Are you saying the oil will weep past the rtv and the pan gasket? When I install my oil filters I put oil on the rubber seal.

The alignment pins remained in the timing cover when I removed it. I do not see how the cover could be warped at this point. The bolts bottom out against the block. The cover was not affected by heat in any way.

I'm in no hurry to install the balancer and take this motor off the engine stand so sound off if you think I should order another timing cover and pan gasket.

 

 

I wouldn't expect too much of a problem from having oil onto the uncured RTV. It's not ideal, but shouldn't hurt anything provided the gasket itself does its job. Hopefully the disassembly & reassembly didn't stretch out the gasket which would cause a leak.

Did you reuse the old timing cover, or buy a new one? GM recommends replacing the cover after use.

 

When installing the oil pan gasket the prior to realizing the keeper error, I added the rtv to the main seal bracket and the timing cover with the oil pan gasket placed on the pan. When removing the pan to fix the error, the rtv was attached to the oil pan. I raised the pan a little and carefully removed the gasket from the pan. I don't think it was stretched.
I did use a new timing cover when rebuilding before the error was realized. As Trucktom pointed out the roll pins usually remain in the block but the pins were still in the cover. To answer your question, I currently have the timing cover I previously installed on this engine. It would run me around $55.00 to replace the gasket and timing cover and in the long run I should do this for peace of mind. I am posting this to see if anyone has reinstalled a timing cover as I did and not had it leak.
I'm currently unemployed so I don't really want to spend the money unless it is absolutely necessary. Has the design on the timing cover changed at all? The bolts which fasten this cover are shaped so that the cover cannot be pulled in beyond the stop of the bolt. From an engineering viewpoint, what would cause the cover to warp so it could not be reinstalled?

 

If you installed a new cover when rebuilt and the motor hasn't been fired up yet, you should have no problems concerning the cover itself.

What happens after it has been in service for a while is that the cover itself takes a set. Any deformation from the bolts and gasket pressure acting between the bolts will be set in place. It is difficult to get proper gasket compression the next time around because of this. Even though the bolts are shouldered, there is some localized compression in the plastic which will set in meaning that the plastic will not return to it's "new" form.

At this point, if it's back together, I wouldn't worry too much about it especially if you didn't stretch out the pan gasket. If you used RTV in the corners again during the reassembly, it should be pretty tight.

 

Despite the recommendation to replace, I reused the timing cover when I did a rebuilt. The alignment dowels were in place with just a little material missing at the back edge of the half circle where the oil pan seal sits. I put a thin layer of silicone across the entire half circle and a blob in each corner. No weeping that I know of. Not sure if that helps you or not.

 

My thoughts are the seals on these mating surfaces will hold up. I enjoy turning the wrenches so if it does leak pulling the motor out again will not be agonizing. I'll keep my fingers crossed and post the results later.