I replaced the timing cover (called the front engine cover by Ford) gasket on my '99 F-150 4.2 w/ 102K, to stop a small coolant leak. Diagnostic thread here... https://www.f150online.com/forums/v6...lant-leak.html



Because I found little info on this repair on the net, I thought I'd snap a few pics and do a quick write up.

DISCLAIMER ... I'm not a trained mechanic (nor do I play one on TV), just a guy who enjoys the challenge and reward of doing my own repairs. What follows is how I performed the repair, not necessarily the right or best way. Done incorrectly, this adventure could cost you a motor. If you don't feel comfortable performing the repair, pay some guy a lot of money to do it for you. That being said, this is not a particularly hard job, just somewhat tedious.

Primary resource for this repair was my '99 Ford truck service manual.

Tools/Materials required:

• Standard hand tools (various wrenches, sockets, etc. ... mostly metric)
• Harmonic balancer puller ($17 at Auto Zone)
• Torque wrenches (lb-in and lb-ft, good to 100 lb-ft)
• 6 mm hex bit
• Spring hose clamp pliers
• M14 x 1.50 x 60 mm Bolt ($5 at hardware store)
• Timing cover gasket
• Water pump gasket
• Permatex Ultra Black RTV Silicone gasket maker
• 6 qts. engine oil and filter
• Approx 2.5 gal 50/50 antifreeze

The party begins ...

Park your truck where you'll have room to work around and under the engine compartment.

Disconnect the neg battery terminal.




Remove the entire air filter and intake, disconnecting the IAT and MAF sensors, as well as the PCV tube. Remove the throttle body cover.




Loosen the pet**** at the lower right corner of the radiator and drain the coolant.




Remove the Serpentine Belt.

 

Remove the plastic cover over the radiator (8 plastic screws), and remove the 2 bolts (8 mm) holding the top corners of the fan shroud.

Remove the top transmission cooler line (if auto transmission), and stuff small pieces of rag in the holes to keep fluid in/dirt out.

Remove the fan. I used a 15" Crescent wrench to loosen the fan nut (the nut is approx 1.5"), and a large bladed screwdriver wedged between the fan nut and a water pump pulley bolt to hold the pulley. The fan and the shroud kind of get removed together.




Remove the upper and lower radiator hoses. At this point, I also removed the radiator (2 additional bolts, 1 transmission cooler line, and 1 overflow coolant line), to give me a little extra room to work and to protect the radiator from damage.

Remove the water pump pulley. Again, I used a large screwdriver to hold the pulley while I loosened the bolts.





Crawl under the truck and remove the skid pan (if 4x4). Kill the large Black Widow spider that drops on the ground next to you when you remove the pan (they don't call it PB BLASTER for nothing ...).




Drain the Engine oil (15 mm) and filter. After draining, replace the drain plug and filter.




Remove the bolt holding the transmission cooler lines ( if Auto)

 

Unplug Crankshaft position sensor




Unplug Knock Sensor harness and Cam Position Sensor. Cut the Zip Tie at the Thermostat Housing and move the harness out of the way.




Remove the bracket. The bottom bolt on the bracket can't be removed without loosening the power steering pump. I chose to loosen the pump and remove the bracket to give my self a little more room to work, but you could probably just tie the bracket out of the way.






Rotate the crank to TDC using the crank bolt. My Harmonic Balancer had a small blue dot of paint on the back which I lined up with the timing pointer. Once I did this, I noticed the edge of the balancer has several small lines engraved on it, one of which is TDC.

 

Remove the Harmonic Balancer/Crank Pulley. Here, my truck differed from the Ford manual. The manual showed removing 4 bolts to remove the pulley, then pulling the balancer. On my truck the pulley and balancer were connected and pulled off as one unit.

In order to pull the balancer, the crank bolt must be removed. This bolt is torqued to approx. 110 lb-ft, so it's on tight. I first tried my cheap air impact wrench ( a tool I almost never use), but it didn't budge the bolt. I ended up wedging a 18" breaker bar between the pulley and the frame to keep the crank from moving and using another breaker bar w/ a cheater pipe extending it to loosen the bolt.




Once the bolt is loose, remove it and the washer under it. Now, thread the bolt back into the crank, all the way in. The head of the bolt is smaller than the hole in the balancer/pulley. This lets you to use the head of the bolt to push against with the puller (protecting the threads in the crank), while still allowing the balancer/pulley to slide off over the head of the bolt.

Attach the puller to the three holes in the pulley (try to get the puller on a little straighter than I did in my pic) and pull off the balancer/pulley. The holes are threaded M8 x 1.25, so make sure your puller has the right bolts (my cheap Auto Zone puller came with the right bolts).




Locate the metal heater outlet hose coming off the top of the water pump, and remove two coolant hoses (one large, one small) from the left side ...




and two coolant hoses (one large, one small) from the right side.




Remove the EGR valve at the lower intake manifold by removing the large nut holding the EGR pipe, the vacuum line from the top of the valve, and three bolts (8 mm) holding the EGR to the lower intake manifold.

Remove the metal heater outlet hose by removing one bolt and pulling the hose up out of the water pump.

 

Remove the water pump by removing 4 bolts, removing the nuts from 3 studs, and removing 1 stud with a fixed nut.




Remove the Water pump studs, noting the positions of the different length studs.

The studs can be removed by jamming two nuts together and using the inner nut to unthread the stud.

Consider making a blood sacrifice at some point during the repair to appease the Repair Gods.




Remove the Cam Synchronizer. This part of the repair had me a little nervous. If the Cam Synchronizer is not replaced properly, the motor will not run. There are alignment tools you can buy, and methods involving a volt meter which will insure proper alignment, but in the end I decided to use the "mark it, pull it out, don't move anything, put it back exactly as it came out" method.

Start by marking the Cam Synchronizer housing's position in relation to the timing cover.




Remove the Cam Synchronizer Sensor (2 5.5 mm screws), exposing the shaft. Mark on the Cam Synchronizer housing where the raised portion of the shaft starts.




Loosen the bolt holding the Cam Synchronizer (this bolt is removed as you remove the Cam Synchronizer). Pull the Cam Synchronizer straight out of the timing cover until it is free of the gear on the cam (lift it out approx 1"). As you pull out the Cam Synchronizer, you'll see the shaft rotate in a counterclockwise direction. When the Cam Synchronizer is free of the gear on the cam, the shaft will stop rotating. Mark on the housing the new position where the raised portion of the shaft starts.




Pull the Cam Synchronizer the rest of the way out of the timing cover and set aside. As long as you do not move the crankshaft, the Cam Synchronizer will drop back in place properly by reversing the procedure you used to remove it.

 

Remove the Thermostat housing and Thermostat.




Remove the six Timing Cover bolts shown in the picture below. Make sure you get the hex head bolt under the oil filter mount ... it's easy to miss.




Now the timing cover is completely unbolted, don't expect it to drop right off. There are two dowels (one in the cover, one in the block), as well as silicone sealer where the cover meets the oil pan still holding it on. The timing cover is not strong, and if you pry against it too hard you will break it. If you break it, you will spend $200 at the dealer for a new one.

I removed my cover by first prying (Very Gently!) against the cover at the two pry points shown in the picture below, until the cover breaks free from the block at each upper corner. I then grabbed the oil filter mount and pulled, basically tearing the cover off the block.




The deteriorated gasket which caused my leak ...




All the gasket surfaces need to be cleaned prior to installing the new gaskets. Be very careful when you clean the gasket surface on the block that the debris you clean off does not drop into the pan. I read of Ford replacing motors immediately after warranty timing cover gasket replacement because the techs dropped so much old gasket into the pan it clogged the oil pump screen, killing the motor. I stuffed clean rags into the gaps at the top of the pan and covered the sprockets/chain with a rag before I scrapped any gaskets off the block. Don't forget to remove the old silicone from the top of the pan and bottom of the cover.

 

Once the gasket surfaces are clean, put a small bead of RTV Silicone (maybe slightly larger than the one shown in the pic below), on the top of the pan where it meets the block.




Install the gasket on the block (I put a thin smooth layer of silicone on both sides of the gasket), and put a bead of RTV Silicone along the top of the pan (again maybe slightly larger than the one shown in the pic below).




The rest of the assembly is pretty much a reverse of the disassembly steps. Put a bead of silicone in the keyway in the harmonic balancer/pulley prior to pulling it onto the crank. Use the M14 x 1.50 x 60 mm Bolt to pull the harmonic balancer/pulley onto the crank (the crank pulley bolt is too short). Make sure you pull the oil pan drain plug and drain out any antifreeze which might have run into the pan, before you add your new engine oil (DON'T FORGET TO ADD THE OIL). Once you get the truck running again, check all your connections for leaks. Check your coolant level for the next few drive cycles, and top it up as necessary.

Go have a beer (or six) ... you deserve it!

After any repair like this, you're going to have a few extra parts left over. Here's what I had left over ... (more on this later)

 

Great write-up and fantastic detail! Thank you!

 

Good step by step, you gonna install an electric fan?

 

Thanks!

When I put it all back together, I installled a Lincoln Mark VIII E-fan controlled by a DC Controls FK50P Controller ...

Pic I took a while back when I was fabricating the shroud ...

 

Darn nice write up, fairlaner. I did the same job on my 95 last year, and as a former President once said, "I feel your pain"!!! Nicely done and thanks for sharing!!! And glad that damn Black Widow didn't getcha!!!

 

how long did this take you to do, i understand it took a little more time since you took so many pictures

 

I probably spent 6-8 hrs taking it all apart and another 2-3 hrs putting it all back together again. I don't often do repairs like this, so when I do, I take my time so I don't screw anything up. If I had to do it again, I could probably do the whole thing in 3-4 hrs.

 

This will be a BIG help when I tackle this. Discovered the leak this morning.

I realize this is an old thread, but any opinions of what gasket brand to use ?

Thanks very much!

 

Great write up! I used this thread to perform this operation on my old’ 97! Took me two full days to work through it (but I was replacing a lot of other components simultaneously) and she’s back up and purring like a cat with 8 lives! Thanks very much for the help!