70 Stage 1 Timing Cover Removal Questions

I suggest having new hardware on hand. I always use an impact gun for the balancer bolt.

 

I'm thinking new bolts for the water pump and timing cover bolts. They are usually crusted in place....

 

On the 455's that I've torn down, the long bolts that go through the block into a water jacket, were not in good shape.
I'm sure you want to keep yours looking original.

Call Todd and see if he has been able to locate the longer bolts.
http://www.diecastmusclecars.com/dcmbuickfasteners.htm

TA 1110-455 Timing Cover Bolts 400-430-455, includes water pump & fuel pump............................................ $44.95

 

Unless you can clamp the flywheel, you may want to wait. The crank bolt needs to come out and you have to retighten it back to over 200 foot pounds. I would have the new hardware in my hand too. Get an impact gun from Harbor Freight. The socket needed is odd like 1 1/16" or 1 1/8 ". Without it, you are not going anywhere.

 

I looked. It is 1 1/8" for the crank bolt.

On the bright side you asked before you started and you get to benefit from the mistakes we made before you.

When I say get an impact gun, I mean an electric gun.

 

Take a picture of how your distributor is clocked before you remove it. You'll have to re-set the timing when you're done, but its good to have a reference of what is "close".

After you get the balancer bolt off, you'll need to remove the balancer itself. Sometimes these just slide off, other times they need convincing. O'Reilly (or wherever) rents/sells a screw-jack style balancer puller that works well.

The timing cover uses both the timing cover gasket and the oil pan gasket to seal up the engine. Presumably you have a new timing cover gasket ready to go on, but I don't know that anyone makes just the front section of the oil pan gasket? Anyway if you damage the oil pan gasket, you may not be able to get the motor sealed up right again. I am not sure what the right solution is to this problem... but it could be a problem. Hopefully someone else chimes in with experience.

As for installing the actual timing set, make sure to rotate the motor until the "dots" on the big sprocket and the little sprocket line up, before you remove the old parts. Then it should be as simple as lining up your new parts dot-to-dot, and sliding them on. You can remove the spark plugs and rocker shafts to make rotating the engine easier, if you do end up having to fiddle with things.

My main advice would be to just use a lot of care. All of your engine's coolant and oil flows across the parting line between the timing cover and block. Those surfaces will need to be scraped and cleaned really thoroughly. The timing cover gasket is a floppy horseshoe-shaped gasket, and can be difficult to get to sit just right, especially with the engine in the car. If its not perfect it can leak, or block off oil flow.

 

Taking off the oil pan with the engine in the car is a pain but there is little choice if plastic teeth are stripped off the chain.

 

You can do this Brett. Your car is worth every bit of sweat you're pouring into it.

 

Well,

How did it go?