mjeff87 Posted October 31, 2019 Author Share Posted October 31, 2019 Yep, I didn't touch the driver side head. In fact, that's the only thing left still bolted to the block at this point. That, and the starter LOL. Everything else is lying on my garage floor. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete M Posted October 31, 2019 Share Posted October 31, 2019 aren't the head gaskets prone to issues? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mjeff87 Posted October 31, 2019 Author Share Posted October 31, 2019 Only if you overheat the engine, then the heads warp (because aluminum), and the valve seats tend to relocate themselves. I'm absolutely anal about the cooling system and watch the temp gauge like a hawk. Knock on wood, I've never had an issue. The bigger problem with the 3.7 are the lash adjuster (lifter) keepers. They like to work themselves loose and then pop off, thereby rendering that cylinder dead. Again, I've not had an issue with mine, and all the ones on the head I pulled are nice and seated. I might pop the valve cover off the other head and check those on that side too, since I had to buy both cover gaskets as a set. Turns out noone sells just a single gasket, or at least noone near me does. Probably could get just one from the dealership, but my NAPA had the set for $57 (Felpro), which is a steal because everyone else was charging $95-$100 for them. Kinda funny, because NAPA is generally the most expensive place on earth. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete M Posted October 31, 2019 Share Posted October 31, 2019 all I'm saying is that now's the time to do all you can. it'll never get any easier. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mjeff87 Posted October 31, 2019 Author Share Posted October 31, 2019 Normally, I'd agree with you and that's what I usually do. However, for now on this, I'm going with the "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" method. I guess the good thing is that everything is fine on that side, and if something does happen, that head is about 75% easier to get off then the passenger side. Plus, now having stripped the engine I know where all the fasteners are, what size they are, and how to get to them. The biggest problem I had (aside from the stupid zip tie on the back of the head....) was pulling the harmonic balancer. I had to go to three different stores to rent a 3-jaw puller that was the right size (not too big, not too small) to get it off. I'll post a closeup pic of it tonight.....it's quite a funky thing. It doesn't have the usual threaded holes in the face to use a regular HB puller. That would be too easy, LOL. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dante2 Posted November 1, 2019 Share Posted November 1, 2019 mjeff87 The passenger side valve cover is the one that leaks (known issue). Drips oil on to the manifold/exhaust pipe area and then enters the passenger cabin. Never had an issue on the driver side but I had both gaskets so I dove in head first. Wife's 04 (235K and still chugging) is burning oil so if we hang on to it I'll be dropping an engine in. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mjeff87 Posted November 1, 2019 Author Share Posted November 1, 2019 Thanks. Mine wasn't leaking.....in fact, I had to pry the cover off the head to get it loose. It had a good seal, lol. I do have a new cover gasket for when I put it back on. Boy howdy am I cheesed off right now. I took my timing cover to a different machine shop (closer to where I work) to have them get that stupid stripped bleeder screw out that's been leaking for awhile now. (I have a separate thread on that on here somewhere, too). I forgot to unbolt the t-stat housing (plastic) and pull it and the stat before I went there. I wanted them to fix the bleeder and also to hot-tank it to get all the grease and grime off of it, and asked them to pull the housing/stat before they tanked it. The guy said they would be fine, no need to pull either. Whatever. I just picked it up and brought it back to my office, and for fun I figured I'll just pop off the housing so I could check things (I'm going to put a new t-stat in it, even though the one I have is only about a year old, just because. Imagine my surprise/shock when I pulled it and saw this on the back side of the stat. All those nice, clean shiny bits of metal stick to a magnet, which means they are not aluminum, which means they didn't come from inside my engine. My cooling system is spotless. They must have been inside the hot tank solution at the shop and got stuck inside while they were cleaning it. Good thing I decided to open it up, otherwise I'd have filled the system up with new coolant and shot all that crap the whole way thru my cooling system. Jesus I'm pizzzed off right now. Will not ever use that shop again. Idiots. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete M Posted November 1, 2019 Share Posted November 1, 2019 that bites. but at least you caught it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mjeff87 Posted November 1, 2019 Author Share Posted November 1, 2019 I can half blame myself for not taking it apart before dropping it off, but c'mon man......that's just no bueno from a machine shop. That's some Bubba and Cletus level work there. Good news is they only charged me $25 to get the stuck/stripped pipe plug out and half-azz clean the cover. LOL. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mjeff87 Posted November 4, 2019 Author Share Posted November 4, 2019 Spent way too much time this weekend working on getting this thing all put back together again. So far I've got about 15 hours into it, but some of that is my being anal and deep cleaning everything before I reinstall it. I've got the engine all sealed back up again (mostly), and need a couple more hours to finish it off. I doubt I'll work on it any this week after work, since it now gets dark around 2:30PM, so I'll probably finish it on Saturday. I still need to put all the front engine accessories back on, reinstall the injectors/fuel rail (I put new o-rings on all the injectors), the electric fan, air cleaner housing, and about a million little electrical connectors. Then refill the cooling system, and change the oil. One of the really nice things about the timing cover on this engine is when you unbolt it and pull it off the front of the engine, all of the trapped coolant still in the block gushes out and right down the front of the engine and right into the (open) oil pan beneath. So, yeah, an oil change is high on the list of stuff to not forget to do. LOL. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
buxmj Posted November 5, 2019 Share Posted November 5, 2019 Looks like you are seeing light at the end of the tunnel, keep it up Jeff, almost there! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mjeff87 Posted November 7, 2019 Author Share Posted November 7, 2019 I'm resisting the urge to work on it when I get home from work (5:30-ish) every day this week so far. I've gotten this far so far, I don't want to rush things just to "git 'er dun". . Trust me, taking the time on this to do it right will pay off in spades.....I never want/need to have to go back into this engine so far ever again. I should have it all buttoned up and fired off sometime on Saturday. Stay tuned... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete M Posted November 7, 2019 Share Posted November 7, 2019 so close! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mjeff87 Posted November 8, 2019 Author Share Posted November 8, 2019 Picking up new radiator hoses tomorrow from NAPA. Bought a gallon of distilled water to mix into the Zerex coolant I have. Picking up a filter and oil tomorrow to do a second oil change once I get it running (I have a filter and some sacrificial oil already in it to fire it off, will change it all out again once it's all good ). Just need about 2 hours Saturday morning to get it all back together and we should (hopefully) have lift off Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JeepcoMJ Posted November 11, 2019 Share Posted November 11, 2019 Jeff, the metal on the stat were shavings from drilling out the bleeder. i had to do that once, and ended up having to go back in a few weeks later to replace the stuck open thermostat Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mjeff87 Posted November 11, 2019 Author Share Posted November 11, 2019 Well.....epic fail. Got it all back together Saturday morning and it fired right off, for about a second. Then a bunch of horrible sounds happened, it chugged a bit then died. Hopefully the 3.7 is not an interference engine, because I think I know what happened (and can fix it if things inside didn't get munched). The end of the cam has a little "pin" sticking out about 1/4" that indexes into the back side of the timing chain gear and locks it and the cam in the proper timing position. While I was reassembling the timing gear/chain (for the second time last weekend...I got it on perfectly the first time but did not install the timing chain guides beforehand and they wouldn't both fit in once the chain was on, so I had to take the chain back off to install them and then put it back on the cam) I didn't get the gear lined up correctly with the pin in the hole and proceeded to torque down the nut on the cam. Once I saw what was going on, I pulled the nut and gear back off, but that stupid little pin got pressed back into the cam and only about 1/16" of it was still proud. No way to pull it back out, so I just lined up the gear on it, added a bunch of locktite and ran that nut down with 125 psi on my air gun. I prayed it would be enough to hold the gear (and cam) in the correct position, and hand-spun the engine over about 10 revolutions to make sure all was well and it stayed lined up. It did, so I just said a prayer and buttoned it all up. What I think happened was the torque of the engine was too much for what little bit of that pin left sticking out and it spun the timing gear on the face of the cam. I just buttoned things up at that point in disgust, and helped my buddy wrench on his wife's car for most of the rest of the day. Spent yesterday with the wife and cut the grass, and I'm now sitting at work (yes, we're off today for Veteran's Day, but a couple of us are working on a special IT project and had to come in today). I might go home after work and pull the valve cover and see where that timing gear is sitting. I'd almost bet my next paycheck that it is free-wheeling now and the cam is just sitting there, not being turned by anything. With any luck, I can purchase a new cam and timing gear and swap both out, without having to disassemble everything, again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete M Posted November 11, 2019 Share Posted November 11, 2019 nooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mjeff87 Posted November 11, 2019 Author Share Posted November 11, 2019 Sadly......yes. Like I said, I "think" that little pin is/was the problem. When I saw it, I told myself I should just stop right there and order a new cam for it, but like an idiot I didn't. I just wanted it all back together and running. Rookie mistake. It's either that or one ( or two) of the timing chains somehow snapped, but I doubt that. If I'm lucky, the primary chain and the left secondary chains are still intact and in time, and it's just the right head that has the problem. I'll know more once I pull the valve cover off later on today (maybe). I've only got to take off about half of what I did the first go round to get the VC off, LOL. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
derf Posted November 11, 2019 Share Posted November 11, 2019 Bummer. Every time I get in a hurry to just finish it so I don't have to f with it any more, I always make mistakes like that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mjeff87 Posted November 11, 2019 Author Share Posted November 11, 2019 Worst case is the timing is all screwed up on that side (I know it is, lol) and some valves made some new friends with some pistons and just bent. Hopefully that didn't happen, but if so I can get a new head for it, which is what I was going to do in the first place if the machine shop couldn't get the original stuck plug threads out. Just means I have to tear it all back apart, but now having done it once I can probably have it all stripped down in an evening. Only thing is I used black RTV on the monster timing cover instead of a gasket, and I know that thing is going to be a bear to get unstuck. I have to go out of town for work next weekend thru the following Wednesday, so I don't know how much I'm going to get done on it before I go. I do have the following weekend open for now, but we have to leave to go up to PA for Thanksgiving that following Monday, so yeah. My original goal was to have this thing back on the road by turkey day. That may or may not happen now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mjeff87 Posted November 16, 2019 Author Share Posted November 16, 2019 Finally got a few minutes to look at this today after work. Tore it down enough to get the valve cover off, and my suspicions were confirmed. All my timing marks on the chain and gear are still lined up, but the cam is retarded about 30 degrees. That dowel pin sheared off and the cam gear spun. Nothing looks broken, and everything still spins without interference so that's a positive. I'm going to pull the plugs and check each piston with a bore scope tomorrow, hoping for the best. I might just only need to swap a new cam and cam gear into it without having to pull the head again. I'll probably pull the front accessories and timing cover back off, just to make 100% sure the timing is set right. I can probably pull all that off next weekend, before we leave for PA for thanksgiving. I might make my deadline after all Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete M Posted November 16, 2019 Share Posted November 16, 2019 so far so good? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mjeff87 Posted November 16, 2019 Author Share Posted November 16, 2019 Yeah. I line-marked the cam the whole length across the caps, you can see how much the gear spun (and the cam didnt) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
COM86 Posted November 19, 2019 Share Posted November 19, 2019 Wow, I just read your thread of woes. I commend you for sticking it out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mjeff87 Posted November 20, 2019 Author Share Posted November 20, 2019 Thanks COM. It's just all mechanical stuff, not all technical computer controlled like later model junk. But, it still all has to be assembled correctly. I'll get it right, hopefully this weekend. I'm coming back home from working remotely tomorrow night, then have to go into the office Thursday (maybe, maybe not....I might take a sick day) and Friday. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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