Well, I snapped one of the 3/8 bolts while tightening the timing cover down. The half of it is still in there. I'm very tempted to just let this go and move on with the rest of my swap, since I only really get to work on the weekends and it's taking forever. Any good reason I should not let this go?

 

It might leak.

Torque is 100 lb. in. for a front cover bolt.

 

Any harm done if I just fill the hole with sealant? I really don't plan on ever pulling this motor apart again. I'm saving for a new one after the h/c swap.

 

While I'm on the timing chain topic... I count 13 total bolt holes. Minus 3 for the opti. That leaves 10 holes left. I only have 8 bolts left to fill the remaining 10 holes. Can someone refresh my memory as to why I'm short two bolts?

 

you have 2 guide pins by water pump

 

I know. I mean there are 13 bolt holes other than those two. Once my opti is in, there will 10 more uncovered holes. I only have 8 bolts and shoeboxes site says there should be 8 bolts to put back in. So that part is right but I'm not seeing why theres only 8 bolts but 10 holes left.

 

Luckily enough I'm working on my car right now and thought the exact same thing you did. On the bottom of the front cover there are 3 holes tightly spaced together, the middle ones are the guide pin holes that happen to go all the way through the cover. I used a flashlight to look in the hole and see.

 

Thank you! I wish I would done the same thing earlier. I was going to but ran out of time. Now I can finally move on.