Broke Timing chain cover at Head bolt 87 22r pickup - replace?
 

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Just replaced the head gasket on my 1987 22r pickup. As I was replacing the bolt from the front of the head into the timing chain cover the timing chain cover literally snapped. It wasn't even torqued yet and I was only torquing it to 14ft/lbs.

What is this bolt's importance? Could we just plug it or reattach the broken pieces with some sort of compound? Should we just replace the whole cover? We just finished replacing the head gasket and head and were so close to being done. Going back in and taking even more off now is not something we are excited about.

Thoughts?

The chain is lubricated by a jet in the oil pump. You could try to repair the cover but it's almost sure to leak. Replacement is your best bet, if the headgasket is new you should be able to slide the timing cover under it without damaging it.

I'd probably stuff some rags around the timing chain so nothing could all into the bottom end and drill that sucker out myself.

Are you talking about the one that goes down from the top??

Or goes into the block from the front .

If the timing cover broke something was not on correct.

Did you have the head milled??

Then didn`t do the cover??:camp:

clarity?
 

This has been a fun little project but I'm confused by what you mean!

It is the bolt that goes down through the head into the timing chain cover, infront of the cam. The head couldn't have been on wrong since it was on the dowels and torqued down. But now you've got me worried that I may do the same thing to the chain cover if the head is on wrong.

The head was milled/resurfaced. and the timing chain cover wasn't. Could that be the problem? I'm putting a new timing chain cover on now so hopefully it was go on correctly!!!

Any more thoughts on that ... thanks for your input ... this has been such a great learning experience for my first big project!

Milling head doesn't affect deck height of block, so you don't half to do anything to the cover.

No but the bolt going down into the timing cover depending on how much the head was milled .

The head is now closer to the timing cover so one needs to use a shorter bolt or it will bottom out causing the cover to break.Maybe even the wrong bolt was used being longer then the original one.

Since I very seldom have a head done without the block being resurfaced that is when I get the timing cover done as well. Then it has been a few years.