Oil pan always goes on after the timing cover, because the pan seals over the cover. If you want to be extra careful about the water pump seal, put it on after putting on the timing cover.

 

Make sure you completely remove the dent in the oil pan. There is very little clearance between the pan and the oil pump pickup. I would also check to make sure the oil pump pickup has not been moved upwards, or loosened.

 

Thanks for the tips.


I'm not repairing the existing pan. I bought a new pan to install.


When I took off the old pan, the pump pick-up was angled up. I can rotate the pick up so I leveled it to the windage tray.

 

If the pickup is easily moved, you might want to replace it. It is a friction fit and should be difficult to move, if it is going to stay in place.

 

It takes some force to move it. To be safe, I'm putting in a new pickup (

 

Having had a pickup fall out of the pump and lose a solid bottom end, I'd recommend you set the angle of the pickup and then take it to you local welder and have it tacked in place. Then replace the oil pump drive coupler on reinstallation. Overkill? Not in my mind....

 

What bolts on the engine require thread sealant? Specifically, do either the intake bolts or water pump bolts? Since coolant comes out when you remove some of the pump bolts, I figured that they might require thread sealant.

Thanks!

 

Definately use Teflon thread sealant on the water pump and thermostat housing bolts bolts. I also used it on he intake manifold bolts to minimize the chance of oil coming up from the lifter valley. Use anti seize on the EGR nuts, TB bolts and the fuel rail bolts.

 

I've made some headway on the car repair. I got the timing cover/gasket installed, new oil pan/gasket installed, oil cooler re-installed, starter re-installed, intake manifold installed & sealed, and received MSD rebuilt Opti.

MSD rebuild was awesome. They replaced the opti sensor, encoder disc, center o-ring, and new cap & rotor. The total repair cost was $68 with return shipping. I couldn't have even bought the cap & rotor for that cost.

I've been thru 2 water pump drive seals before I successfully installed the third seal. I didn't have the nice aluminum install tool. The first seal was trash because I installed the seal before installing the timing cover. On the second seal, I used the 1/2" deep well socket (1/4" drive). I'd seen a YouTube video where a guy had used this method. This didn't work for me. I started looking around the garage for a tool substitute. I ended up using a transmission funnel. I measured the OD of the water pump drive and cut the funnel where it matched the OD. This worked perfectly!!

The stuff I found on this car has had me shaking my head. The right header collector was leaking. Once I removed the lap band clamp, I discovered the header and mid-pipe never meet. The mid-pipe doesn't lap over the collector OD like it should. I took apart the electrical tape for the coil connectors. I found ring terminals stuck into female spade connectors. Now everything is soldered with heat shrink.

 

Looks great man,it's amazing what we find when we get really deep inside these cars

 

How long can I run the engine without coolant in the system? I want to test fire the engine before I get too far along. I don't want to have to take a bunch off if it's not firing right.

 

Putting everything back together and trying to figure out electrical connectors. I've got an "extra" connector that is with the IAT connector. It is a grey plug with 2 wires. It's been "extended" by the previous owner. They used butt connectors at one end & at the other end, they just twisted the wires together and taped them. SMFH!!

 

Sorry, the grey connector is the IAT sensor plug. The black (non-extended) plug is the CLT sensor plug.

 

Sorry man I just got done bleeding my coolant system,um u can start it up n see n as soon as u know it starts just shut it off that is wat I did when I had to realign my distributor back in

 

I got the car started today. No SES lights and no extended cranking. It started like a normal car should start!! Ready to fill with coolant and test it out.