If your doing a timing cover gasket>>(semi write up)

[2000acr]

Use a fricken toruqre wrench- I did it by hand a month ago and tightened them on the light side to avoid damaging the aluminum- It was too ight and becasue of that the gasket broke on me

Now I'm re-doing the damn thing with a torque wrench- On the bright side I was able to get everything off in 45 min this time..lol practice makes perfect-

heres the steps-

1) remove airbox
2) remove metal diagnal cross member
3) drain oil
4) remove 4 bolts on front bottom of oil pan
5) remove oil filter adapter 4 bolts(DO NOT REMOVE OIL LINES)
6) losen half way the rest of the oil pan bolts so the pan drops 1 inch-
7)remove water pump pully/ bolts
8) remove water pump /bolts
9)remove alternator
10)remove crank pully(hex bolts)
11)remove crank bolt- 31mm shorty socket

12)remove harmonic balancer with a puller- you may need slightly longs bolts that u can get at Ace hardware-(PUT THE CRANK BOLT BACK IN BEFORE YOU DO THIS- FOR THE PULLER ROD TO PUSH AGAINST)

13) losen the 2 long bolts on the bottom drivers side thing attacjed to the timing cover- pull them out over half way.

14)remove the cam position sensor- you juts need to losen the 1 bolt a bit and it pulls out- (BEFORE YOU PULL IT OUT MARK WITH A PEN EXACTLY WHERE ITS BOLTED IN- IF YOU RE INSTALL IT TOO FAR IN IT WILL SHEAR THE TIP OFF AND YOULL NEED A NEW ONE AND TO REMOVE THE CRAP)

15) remove the 14mm timing cover bolts/timing cover-

16) carfully remove the timing cover

17) if you add a checmical solvent or gobs of silicone it will help you remove the old gasket easier- remove gasket-

18) when you re-install- replace the water pump gasket-oil adapter gasket-- and front crank seal-

19) do not put the crank seal on the timing cover until after you re install the timing cover- crank seal gos on last.

20) USE A TORQUE WRENCH ON ALL THE BOLTS YOUR REINSTALLING- CHECK THE CORRECT FT /LBS

 

[Fatboy 18]

Need as much info as possible please, and if you have taken any pics that would be good too.

I have a coolant leak from the front right hand side of the engine somewhere near the oil lines, around the timing cover area I pulled up in a petrol station the other day to see a small amount of steam coming out of the RH hood vent. The leak is not massive, but it looks like I'm going to have to do the job myself There's no one near me who I would trust to do the job.

Mark

 

[BOTTLEFED]

Need as much info as possible please, and if you have taken any pics that would be good too.

I have a coolant leak from the front right hand side of the engine somewhere near the oil lines, around the timing cover area I pulled up in a petrol station the other day to see a small amount of steam coming out of the RH hood vent. The leak is not massive, but it looks like I'm going to have to do the job myself There's no one near me who I would trust to do the job.

Mark

There are 2 coolant hoses going into the cover there, I'm sure its just one of them cracked/loose.

 

[Fatboy 18]

Hard to tell, there's so much stuff in the way, I will have to perform some kind of strip down to pin point it. At first I thought it might have been the thermostat gasket and fluid leaking down vapourising on the engine block, bit now I'm not so sure

Do you guys leave the hood in place when attempting this repair, or do you remove it?

 

[1TONY1]

Hard to tell, there's so much stuff in the way, I will have to perform some kind of strip down to pin point it. At first I thought it might have been the thermostat gasket and fluid leaking down vapourising on the engine block, bit now I'm not so sure

Do you guys leave the hood in place when attempting this repair, or do you remove it?

The hood is sooooo easy to remove and install I don't know why anyone would attempt this with it on the car.

 

[Fatboy 18]

I'm worried about aligning it up again

 

[Phun70]

I'm worried about aligning it up again

If you remove the bolts at the hood, it can really only go on one way. There is no adjustment there.

 

[Dom426h]

Hood Off.

There is no risk of missaligning it as the adjustment is in the bracket/hinge thing, Not at the point where it connects to the hood.

Do not drive your viper anymore. U are lucky if it is only leaking coolant externaly. When/If the gasket fails on the inside loop it will cause much coolant to blow through into your oil and Boom

 

[Fatboy 18]

OK, Thanks I will give it a go, take pics of the project and see see if I can resolve the issue

 

[Fatboy 18]

Hood Off.

There is no risk of missaligning it as the adjustment is in the bracket/hinge thing, Not at the point where it connects to the hood.

Do not drive your viper anymore. U are lucky if it is only leaking coolant externaly. When/If the gasket fails on the inside loop it will cause much coolant to blow through into your oil and Boom

Thanks, Oils Fine But due a change now

 

[Ratical2]

I recently had my hood off. It made access to the front of the motor so much easier. No issues about getting it back on right. There are only 4 nuts to remove and they are not part of the alignment. It is a 2 man job though. The hood isn't all that heavy but you need two people for positioning.

 

[GTSPOWERED]

several years back my water pump gasket went out and dumped all the coolant into the crank case. Luckey there was no damage as all the bearoings were inspected and I have put several thousand miles on since.

 

[ViperTony]

The hood is sooooo easy to remove and install I don't know why anyone would attempt this with it on the car.

Agreed...4 nuts and off it comes.

 

[Fatboy 18]

Thanks guys, that's made me feel a whole lot better, I think I might venture out into the garage this evening but its rather cold here, I will have to get the heaters working

 

[2000acr]

if your water pump gastet or timing cover gasket gos out-

1) remove the hood for the job- there is no alignment- just 4 bolts-

2) put new oil in when you refill the oil- you should drain it anyways when losening the oil pan bolts- its cheap insurance to *** new oil in..especially if you dont know if coolant got into the oil when the gasket went out- put new oil in.

 

[Fatboy 18]

Yep, im going to drop the sump pan and give it a good clean out too, change filter etc and see if I can flush out the rad too using a hose pipe

 

[Fatboy 18]

Well started to get into this last night, What a job getting the cross member out, over 2 hrs trying to jiggle the thing out, also had to cut some of the inner wheel arch out around where the bolt goes into the cross member (I could undo the bolt but not push it out of the way, seemed someone at the factory did not align the inner fender properly trapping the bolt

After having removed the cross member, I removed the belt and generator. Trying to work out how to disconnect the dam connector took another 1/2 hr Easy when you know how but the manual does not tell you how Once the generator was out of the way I found my leak! Its the timing cover gasket, leaking just below the top left hand bolt (as your looking at the engine from the front). Next job will be removing the pulley and damper!

The leaking coolant has oxidised on the engine making a hell of a mess Any ideas what is the best way to get the block and oil lines looking like new again? I don't want to use anything too acidic in case it damages the plating

 

[VIPER BAZ UK]

Way to go mark......... You can do it

 

[Fatboy 18]

Way to go mark......... You can do it

Yea, I figured you were under pressure with the house and all, They want me to put my car on display at the AutoSport show in January, so Ive just got to get on with it

 

[Ricksnake1]

Generator? Are you working on a English Ford?

 

[snakebitdave]

"Well started to get into this last night, What a job getting the cross member out, over 2 hrs trying to jiggle the thing out, also had to cut some of the inner wheel arch out around where the bolt goes into the cross member (I could undo the bolt but not push it out of the way, seemed someone at the factory did not align the inner fender properly trapping the bolt "

The crossmember comes out and installs quite easily if you get the weight of the car off the front wheels. This is because the crossmember is in compression. Letting the wheels hang on the suspension opens up the area at the ends of the crossmember. No cutting required.

 

[Ratical2]

Even with the weight of the wheels with the car being supported by the front lower cross member, I had a heck of a time moving the upper cross member out of the way to replace the water pump. Never did get it fully out the car.
I feel your pain Mark!

 

[Fatboy 18]

Yep the car was suspended using Axel stands on the main chassis near the front wishbones, the problem was the large rivets that were holding the inner wheel arch, positioned just above the cross member, but a bit of prying and knocking with a rubber mallet did the trick

As for the 'generator'....That's what its called in the OEM Workshop manual We call it an Alternator

 

[garyd]

Replaced mine this past summer with the x member in place. It made it more difficult for sure but it can be done. Had to remove the pass. side bolts and move it forward about 1/4" to get the water pump in. Take your time and pay attention to detail and you will be OK. Remember VCA and Google are your friends.
Follow link to pics: Pictures by TheDogg_2010 - Photobucket

 

[Fatboy 18]

Thanks for the photo link
I wish I had known how that connector to the alternator came apart, I damaged mine in the process of trying to get it apart so will be using a small cable tie to hold it back together

 

[eucharistos]

thanks for the thread and additional comments guys

 

[Fatboy 18]

Spot the leak

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So after removing a few bits and bobs, I'm at this stage now

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Found a place for the hood

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Spent over a day cleaning the old gasket material off the various faces Bloody hard to get off

 

[Fatboy 18]

Just posted this up on the uk viper site.

Hope it helpes,

So attempting this job the first thing was where to put the bonnet?
Rear wings come in handy

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Next job was to remove the engine cross-member, the fiberglass inner wheel fender had to be slightly cut to enable me to remove the bolt!

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Once the cross-member was out of the way I could start taking off the Alternator and other bits.

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If you look just behind the alternator bracket you can see where the coolant was leaking!

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Crankshaft pulley removed. This is attached to the crankshaft damper.

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That rusty horrid thing is the crankshaft damper

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So having drained the old coolant, removing rad hoses, dropping oil pan and removed the timing cover, this is what your left with!

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A good clean up of all parts was now required.

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Timing cover removed and the task of cleaning off old gaskets begins.

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New gaskets supplied by the 'Wizard' and for good measure I also used some gasket sealant as there was some pitting on the engine face around where the coolant leak had been.

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Timing cover back on.

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Next job Crankshaft oil seal!

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I found a suitable sleeve to put around the front edge of the oil seal and carefully knocked it into place with a hammer.

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Here's what you should end up with.

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I did not like the asthetic look of the old crankshaft damper, so I rubber it down with Emery paper and sprayed it with Hammerite smooth gloss black paint.

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You can see the damper in this pic (behind Dave's Big Brakes under drive pulley)
Note also the new water pump pulley and idler wheel.

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Then the technical hitch with the new Idler wheel!

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That little bit of thread was attempting to hold the new idler wheel and upon torquing the bolt it fractured! ( Should have used a longer bolt)

So off to a machine shop where they made me a spacer, supplied me with a thread cutting tool and the repair now looks like this

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One other thing, if you do decide to change your pulleys, there are various different length drive belt specs!! I ended up getting a bit of string, putting around the pulleys and measure the length. I ended up with a seven rib belt from Euro Car parts.

Hope this is helpful
Cheers
Mark

 

[VIPER BAZ UK]

Good job Mark..
Pulleys look great,,,

 

[vettegc]

Does anybody still have these pictures from this thread?