Bought a used pickup and recently learned about the timing chain guides breaking around 130k, noticed a slight rattle so I took off the valve cover and sure enough the timing chain guide was completely gone on the drivers side, and the chain had left some grooves along with a roughly 4 mm hole into the water/coolant. There's no contamination in the oil yet, so i think the coolant level has been low enough since the hole appeared that none of it has leaked into the engine. Any advice on ways to patch this hole? Im obviously replacing the missing chain guide with the steel backed one off enginebldr.

 

I assume this is a 22r? It is a common problem and can be repaired by a skilled TIG welder and then a skilled machinist. I have seen a few of those in my 16 year career.

 

For $130.00 you can replace it all. Go to ebay.com type this number in the search menu 200748501304 buy that kit and install it. I have that very same kit installed on my 87 pickup. I have several thousands of miles on it and its still quiet as a mouse. I'm highly satisfied with the quality if parts there.

 

as a welder it is so much cheaper to just buy a new timing cover .It is not worth the time to even fix my own.

I got a few from Engine builder over the years when i do a timing chain I go all new parts.

 

I would not recommend trying to fix it, you don't want the weld to fail down the road again and be back to square 1. Best to replace and know you'll be good for another 130k.

 

To weld it correct if you can do it yourself to get it clean your talking lots of cleaning maybe even baking in a oven to get all the oil cooked out .

other wise it will leak so bad.

If you want get a new one and weld this for fun!!

 

If you have it repaired make sure that the person that is doing the repair, does not over heat and warp the cover. I recently worked on a friends truck ,that had the tc repaired and replaced after the original was broken. The man working on it gave up after several attempts to fix the problem of no oil pressure. We also found that the cover was badly worn were the oil pump runs. Between the two problem it couldn't build oil pressure.

 

PO just put JB weld in the hole and sold it to me. Nice guy wasn't he????