Crankshaft Seal Removal and Gasket Kit Question

Okay, I got everything put back together as best I could. Had a big back fire with colors and a coolant leak. I think when I put the harmonic balancer on it made the water pump loose, so I tightened all the bolts a little more and now it doesn't seem to be leaking. My big concern now is the back fire issue. I gotta admit I'm a little confused about top dead center and getting the distributor pointing at the number one spark plug. Maybe I need to pull the distributor out again and reseat it with the distributor pointing in the other 180 degrees. Does that make sense? I think I was pointing the distributor to 180 from the correct position. Any ideas and suggestions would be appreciated.

 

When my 455 was 180 degrees out I had NOTHING, really not sure about a 350 thou. Have you moved it just a bit each way already?

 

1. Remove number one spark plug
2. Stick a wine cork in the hole
3. Turn over the engine by hand using a socket and ratchet or breaker bar. Once the wine cork pops out slowly turn the engine over till the balancer hits Top Dead Center
4. Remove the distributor cap. See where the rotor is pointing
5. Insure the number one spark plug wire is over the rotor.
6. If not either move the plug wires around the cap so it matches up.
7. Or remove the distributor and stab it in differently.

the limitation is the vacuum advance canister and ensuring it allows you to advance and retard the timing from the initial setting.

 

When that wine cork pops take a drink of the wine you opened then put that pointer on the crank on "0" then look at the distributor to see where it is pointed. You can do this with your finger, thumb if you have help.

 

I got it going. I messed up the timing. I didn't realize that the harmonic balancer has two rotations; compression and exhaust. So I think I set up the distributor on the exhaust cycle, which makes sense because when I was tightening down the cranks and pulleys and it moved the TDC (zero) clockwise and I think I just rotated one revolution to get back to zero, which was the exhaust cycle. Started right up and sounded great. No leaks. But now my issue is it appears that I lost my oil prime. When I took off the timing cover with the oil pump still on, I packed the ports (3 of them?) on the timing cover with petroleum jelly. I didn't put any jelly in the block. I was dripping oil (losing prime?) when I was cleaning the timing cover and putting the crank seal in etc... I ran the engine for 10 seconds and the oil pressure light did not go off. Any ideas? Thanks for all the help!

 

You should probably pull the distributor while noting the position. Then prime with your drill with ignition on and stop when oil light goes off. Then reinstall distributor in the same position.

 

Priming goes easier if you fill up the oil pressure sender fitting/hole first.

 

Yes, Thanks 69 Wild, I saw that you mentioned that earlier too. I'm just worried about seizing up the engine. I'm thinking that the 10 second rule is okay. Its probably the heat that would cause the engine to seize, so keeping it under 10 seconds it wouldn't do too much damage, right?

I think my plan is to:
1. remove distributor
2. remove oil sensor,
3. Squire some oil into sensor hole,
4, plug in oil gauge tool into hole; (need to get oil gauge from harbor freight.) do you think autozone might have a loaner gauge?
5. spin the oil pump with the priming tool in the distributor hole and plug the hole for distributor hold down.
6. wait until I get a pressure reading.

I'm assuming it was/is okay to leave that petroleum jelly in the holes on the timing chain cover when re-installing, right? I didn't scoop it out. I guess I'm just wondering if that jelly could be blocking the flow.

 

Jelly won't block anything. You really don't need a gauge on the hole you just have to confirm flow. You could connect a tube to the hole or just put someone's finger over it until some pressure and flow produced by the drill.....either way you just want to confirm the prime.

 

Okay, so maybe like a beer bong with oil in it going to the hole. I'll give it a try. Probably a two man operation.

 

Red or white asking for a friend. Lol

 

I didn’t have an old distributor so I made my own tool. 1/4” drive extension I believe a 7/16 socket drilled a hole through the flat thicker sidewall area and used a hardened roll pin to drive pump. I did tack weld socket before use.

 

I like the priming tool. I did see on youtube where a guy dropped the socket into his timing cover, so tack welding the socket on makes alot of sense. I'm using a loaner tool from autozone, but I'm not sure if it fits. I saw another post where the guys says it didn't fit: https://www.v8buick.com/index.php?threads/oil-pump-priming-tool.236575/.

Not sure if I'm using the same one but when I look into see if it changed position, it has, so I'm assuming it works. I ran the drill for about 3-4 minutes, didn't feel anything, so then I took off the oil filter and ran the drill; still didn't see anything. Now I'm going to try and remove the oil sensor and squirt some oil in there and then see anything happens. Oil sensor is kind hard to get at. Any other suggestions would be great.

 

If anybody know what socket size to get oil sensor off, I'd appreciate it.

 

Sounds like you've been trying to prime the oil pump gears by spinning the drill clockwise. IF the pump didn't prime it could be because there is NO OIL in the oil pump to start the prime. Put oil in sensor hole & turn drill counter clockwise to suck the oil back into the pump. Do this 3-4 times. Then reverse direction to clockwise. IF oil got sucked into the pump gears it may now prime & you'll get oil everywhere.

Tom T.

 

And have oil filter as full as you are able.

 

I go with red, Oliver is good for just sitting around and having a glass or two. Red Neck red is good too. I used to get a lot of wine from Sweedish Hill in NY. they are from the finger lakes. The wines I mentioned are on the sweeter side and pretty neutral and not too sweet.

 

I’m a fan of the reds myself. I like the dryer Chianti’s but also like the Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlots. I have had a few local wines myself living on Long Island NY most farms are now wineries. I’ve tried some wine aged in Bourbon barrels and found them quite interesting.

 

Bummer, spent most of the day trying to get oil pressure. Removed oil filter and tried squirting oil into the feed side of the pump, seemed to have a spring so I pushed it back and tried squeezing oil into it. Put oil filter back on and removed oil sensor squirted oil in the hole, came back out so I threaded a nut on there and forced oil into it maybe 1/2 a quart, spun the drill counterclockwise and clockwise. I left the tube in the oil sensor and when I was spinning the drill it looked like it was sucking oil into the sensor hole, so I thought I was good (vacuum?). Still a no go, started the engine for about 15 seconds and oil light never went out. Now I'm trying to pull the oil pump off and I'm going to pack it with petroleum jelly. I think I need to remove the distributor to get the oil pump off. I removed 5 bolts and it didn't budge. Any other ideas would be appreciated. Thanks for all the help. Happy Easter!

 

Looks like I forgot to remove the oil filter (just reviewed the manual), I think that is what is holding the oil pump in place. Need to buy more petroleum jelly. Wish me luck.