There is no reason to change out your timing cover to fix a leak or two. You can do that without spending 900.00. If your oil pressure is good, remove the cover, replace the front seal, and make sure you seal the front of the oil pan. I did mine in the car when my TC developed a coolant leak. Yes, it's a bit time consuming, but entirely doable. If you want to avoid spilling coolant into your oil pan, do as I did. Remove the water pump after draining the radiator. Then jack up the back of the car and enough of the coolant will drain from the block, so that when you level the car and remove the TC, no coolant will spill into the front of the pan. Buy a new rubber front seal and install it. The TC gasket kit comes with a portion of the oil pan gasket. You'll likely tear that portion removing the TC. I trimmed back the edges, and used black weatherstrip sealant on the replacement gasket section, with the right stuff sealant at the ends where it abuts the oil pan gasket. I used spray on sealant for the rest of the TC gasket. https://www.v8buick.com/index.php?threads/question-about-front-main-seal.369245/
I typically have 20-26 psi hot oil pressure, I have seen it as low as 18 when engine temp was about 210* and I was in gear at a stop light. Cold start oil pressure is around 50 psi. I am trying to prep the car for the HotRod Power Tour in June. After reading several write ups about oil pump gear clearances and looking at the exploded diagrams of all of the gaskets and springs between the oil pump and TC I am honestly a little intimidated to take this on myself with any confidence of getting it correct the first time. With trying to prep this and rebuilding 91 Toyota pick-up for my son's 16th birthday in July my time is at a premium and I only have room to have one vehicle exploded in my garage at at time. Maybe it will be warm this weekend and I will get a chance to really clean the oil and old UV dye and get a better idea exactly where it is leaking and hope that that is the problem and not a symptom of massive blow by. As always thank you for the input and thank you for an active forum with people willing to share their knowledge.
Never encountered a leak like this. Drive 500 miles under 60mph and I am down an ounce or two of oil. Drive 50 miles at 75mph and I am down a full quart of oil. On what should be a freshly rebuilt motor.
Oil pressure is fine. Replace the seal and gasket. The hardest part is removing and reinstalling the harmonic balancer. Run the oil pump with a drill before installing the distributor.
Is there a special balancer removal tool for the Buick or will the old harbor freight one I bought for SBC 15 years ago work?
No tool needed. The Buick balancer is slip fit. To remove the bolt, put a breaker bar, extension, and socket onto the bolt. Then position the end of the breaker bar against the floor, ON THE DRIVER'S SIDE. Crank the starter for a second or two and it breaks the bolt loose. Balancer pulls right off.
