Shim kit and booster plate gasket are in. Decided to check oil pump clearance on the cover I bought. While turning things over I noticed a crack on the bottom bolt hole on the fuel pump side of the cover. Take a look at the pics and let me know what you'd do.
I would weld or have it welded, blended, machined flat mating surface install and drive the snot out of it.
If it were mine, I'd probably try some of the low-temp aluminum brazing rods and run it. I wouldn't be afraid to run it without welding. The only way I can image it cracked like that is maybe that bolt was forgotten and someone tried to pry it loose? I wouldn't scrap it if that's all that's wrong with it. If you know an aluminum welder or can do it yourself, if that makes you feel better, it's not a high stress area.
I think I'm gonna grind it out a bit with my dremel and JB weld or braze it. I put the scrap option up there because I figured there'd be someone that suggests junking it instead of working with what I have.
The crack is from the hole to the outside of the casting so can't propagate any further it's run out of material. Iwould just grease the washer used so the bolt head slides when you torque it up . If you do decide to do a weld repair remember you will change the T condition of the alloy In the heat affected zone. Making it softer and more likely to deform when you torque the bolt up. Resulting in reduced preasure on the gasket mating face in that area.
As posted it’s al ready cracked all the way thru so it can’t get any worse and you still have some 357 degrees of flat area for the bolt to load down on. Cracks like that take place from over torquing the part far beyond what’s needed to make a seal. Another common mistake I have seen lead to these types of things is using grade 8 bolts instead of bolts that do the right thing a stretch when torqued up. only grade 5 rated bolts are needed to retain the timing cover and many other items that get bolted to the motor. if you weld it up then you need to get both the bolt face and the gasket face, not only flat but parallel with each other, so just how the heck would you get that accomplished. What you do want to do so no more cracks take place I’d to put a slight chamfer on each side of that hold with a chamfer but, or a big enough drill bit . The chamfer on the bolt side needs to be wide enough to remove any of that pitting . After some chamfer rework I would run it as is!
Ref Vet post I can assure you the weldment will be softer than the alloy parent material if a 4043 5% silicone filler is used to carry out a repair .
I’d bolt it back on, no repairs to it, use a washer under the bolt like Alec said, it will keep the bolt head from trying to twist the casting around the hole, it will push it straight into the face of the block which is what you want. Just snug it up, don’t moose on it.
JB Weld it lol put a washer on it and tighten to TQ spec I think that is only about 30 lb It is in a non important area.
On those covers the trick ive found is hairspray or light coat of spray paint both sides...thhen tighten evenly...with 1/4 in ratchet till its snug then 1/4 tirn more..heat cycle it then another snug Also a hard block with 180 paper across both surfaces
If you could find a correct insert washer like these with an allen head bolt, that would be as good as you can get without doing any work to the cover.
