QuestionThanks Mr. Benjamin,
I have been out of my mechanics tool box for about 2 decades and all my other vehicles are late model and I take them to the dealer.
But unlike riding a bike, I have forgotten most of what I used to pay attention to. And I forgot to store the truck with sufficient anti freeze.
I am probably going to have to hunt a new timing cover through the auto wreckers. Good point about the seal, I will get a new one regardless of the outcome. And special thanks for the “finger tight” cover bolting followed by a crankshaft turn to seat it. Nothing worse than a crippled oil seal. I never would have thought of this and my Chilton manual for this old truck is void of any such details or precautions.
Any suggestions on a motor flush. Years ago, I would mix diesel and oil 50/50 and run for a couple of minutes to flush out water contaminated engines. What do you suggest?
Very grateful for your confirmations. I somehow feel less alone in the desert of few 70 Dodge D500’s.
Kind Regards,
David
-------------------------------------------
The text above is a follow-up to ...
-----Question-----
I have a 5 ton D500 with a 318 engine. The engine was rebuilt in 1993. The truck was put in storage in 1994 then run again for another year and stored again pretty much till now. I think the rebuild has about 5000 miles on it. I recently fired it up and it ran great. Real smooth, no vibration, good as new. But I noticed the temp start to climb so I shut down and checked the radiator. It was low. But there were no stains or leaks on the ground. I put a gallon of premix in and went for a little warm up drive. Everything seemed OK until I pulled the dipstick. Yikes! - Grayish white, and four times over the full line. I kind of doubt I have an intake manifold gasket leak or a head leak because the engine starts easily and runs smooth. Would you agree with this or should I throw a vacuum gauge on it? How about compressions check even though it runs great?
My suspicion is the timing cover that routes water from the water pump to the block. It may be made of aluminum and may have corroded due to little or no antifreeze during storage. The intake manifold radiator hose connector is aluminum and that rotted out around the gasket seat about 2 years ago and was replaced.
What recommendations would you have to best target the problem prior to committing to any one area of disassembly?
If it is the timing cover and I can get it welded or resealed depending on the condition, would it be safe to use the same timing cover crank shaft seal if it’s undamaged?
Kinds Regards
David
-----Answer-----
It's too bad it was parked with less than 30% anti-freeze in it, that probably caused the aluminum corrosion. From that background, and the other things you report, I agree, it is not likely to be anything involving a head or intake manifold gasket. Certainly it can't hurt to do a compression check or to put a vacuum gauge on it, but I think you are going to wind up pulling the front of the engine apart to get at the corrosion.
As for re-using the crank seal, I think you are asking for a leak if you take that chance.
When you install the timing cover again, put the timing cover bolts in less than finger tight and then rotate the crank a couple of turns so that the timing cover can move around to where it is centered on the crank, then tighten the bolts.
This is a pretty cheap part to replace, and you'll have it all apart anyway. Chances are you are going to have to find another timing cover anyway, so you'll wind up replacing the crank seal anyway - you can't remove one and transfer it to another timing cover and expect it not to leak. For that matter, if you send the old timing cover out to be heliarced and machined, you'll have to replace the crank seal anyway. You'd sure be upset if you had to take it apart again because of trying to save a few bucks!
Good luck,
Dick
AnswerI'm a little nervous about flushing the engine with thinned oil to drive out water. I think you could probably do that to it without much worry as long as you didn't put a load on the engine or rev it up, but I don't think you could be confident you had driven all the water off. The way to do that is to get the truck fixed and then, with fresh oil and filter, run it long enough to get it up to normal operating temperature and then just drive it for 10 miles or so - this should thoroughly evaporate all the water, and if your crankcase PCV system is operating correctly, it will all be purged out of the system. Move up the next oil and filter change to a short time - like 1 month, and keep using the truck (I know it's a chore to drive and a gas hog), until you feel you have really worked it enough to get all the bad stuff evaporated and driven off.
Dick
