Timing chain cover

[Hardrockminer1967]

Hello all, I am looking for direction (instruction/description) for changing the timing cover gasket on my 97 GTS. It is leaking Antifreeze. yay for me... I have it stripped down to even having the top cross member removed along with hood and nose cone (naturally AC not working so figured I will search that out as well.) (joyful but figured it out by jacking the lower cross member) but I am at the point of no return and looking for any paperwork or manual for doing this that anyone may have.... Yes, I do plenty of repairs but usually on my flatheads and the old modal A 4 cyls.... I do have assistance by a mechanic friend but we want to ensure we fully understand the process prior to making an expensive mess up..Help?? and thanks ahead of time...

 

[MoparMap]

Have you got it off yet? It's possible that it might use an o-ring instead of a gasket, which makes for a pretty straightforward replacement. I know my gen 3 was that way at least, but not sure when it changed.

 

[Hardrockminer1967]

no. I have not as I am a bit worried on the harmonic balancer (spelling?) and messing any internals. Hoping for some paperwork to review prior to. Thanks for the response... I have huge issues finding any parts way up north. Seems Dodge left us all high and dry...

 

[MoparMap]

Oh yeah, I guess the damper on those isn't necessarily as straightforward to pull because of the super long crank bolt if I remember right. Or at least it was that way on my gen 3. I ended up buying the dealer tools off of Ebay and elsewhere as I have little intention of every selling my car, so wanted to get them while I still could. The balancer itself can be pulled with a generic pulling tool, but you might need an insert to go in the crank bolt hole to have something for the puller to push against. Though maybe the gen 2 wasn't as bad. The little insert itself is fairly cheap and easy to come by though. I still had issues with it though and had to modify it a little bit as it would get wedged in the bolt hole on mine for some reason.

 

[haneifk]

basically after you remove crank pulley, remove the vibration damper with a universal puller. here's a video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pon0mn_pxQ8
from there it's 14 bolts (9 on front of cover, 5 on oil pan to cover)