I finally got time to change out my leaking(severely that is)tappet cover gasket. I just made a 1600 mile round trip and went thru near 5 quarts of oil.  While in the past I have removed every thing form the drivers side of the engine at different time, it was the first time I ever had to remove all of them at once. Pretty much stripped everything on the drives side to gain good access to the block. The only thing I left on was the fuel lines for 3, 4, and 6. Just did not want to mess with the lines at the head. They did get in the way a little but not to bad. It was also the first time I dd the VP by myself. Of everything I dealt with, that worried me the most. It all went back together fine. Primed the fuel system and got her running in about 5 minutes. Took her for a test drive and pulled into a parking lot and found one leaking fuel line at the head. A quick turn of the wrench, problem solved. The beautiful thing was no puddle of oil like I have been seeing for a while now.

 When  got the tappet cover off I was surprised to see how bad of condition it was in. It was completely hard and had cracks in it all the way around. When I took it off the biggest piece that came off was about 6" long. The rest of it came off in 1" to 2" pieces. I probably spent no more than 1 hour removing the cover, the gasket, cleaning it up, installing the new gasket, and bolting the tappet cover back on out of the 2 days I worked on it. For now it was all worth it. Keeping my fingers crossed I installed it well and they will be no problems until this one goes out.

 I did have 2 glitches with the install. #1 When I took the filter canister our I disconnected the fuel line and wedged the fuel line up in the fire wall somewhere. Evidently I knocked it loose, then tool a break and ate some lunch. When I came back out and started back to work I dropped a bolt. Thats when I noticed the fuel line on the ground dribbling fuel. Got it back up and zipped tied it up. Since the ground was wet from the morning rain I just did not see it. I could not tell you why I did not smell it. I noticed a fair amount of wetness this morning and noticed it was green. Lit a paper towel and put in the small puddle and the puddle caught on fire and burned for an hour     . After getting the truck up and running it looks like I lost about 6 or 7 gallons of diesel. I bring this up not for the cost of the diesel but you just dont need to pour it on the ground. Its just not a good thing to do.

 The other problem is now my Scan Gauge does not work. It was working fine before but is dead as a door nail now. Not sure what is going on there, and I ran out of time today to look into it. I am open to suggestions though.

 Any way I want to thank all of you here who continue to give me confidence to tackle projects like this. I have by far done more things to this vehicle than any I have owned before. Yall have allowed me to learn and pass it on to others for there benefit.

 

 

The chicken man and his truck say  THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!  I am no longer lubricating everything I drive on.

 

 

 

I gotta do mine too. Gonna do a write-up when i do mine. Also have a whole list of things im going to do while im in there. Im tired of leaving an oil puddle the size of a softball everytime i stop somewhere

I would suggest to do the intake gasket because it's easy with most of the lines removed & return T grommets while in there due to moving the VP return line around. Get all new crush gaskets for the banjos & heck do the back of the head banjo too. 5 hours is all it took for me.

 

Ed

I gotta do mine too. Gonna do a write-up when i do mine. Also have a whole list of things im going to do while im in there. Im tired of leaving an oil puddle the size of a softball everytime i stop somewhere

Same puddle here and it was starting to get expensive. I thought about a write up but most of what I did came from write ups and info I got from here. The tappet cover was the easiest part. 5 bolts off, remove old gasket, install new, and 5 blots on. Wished I would of had more time and better weather to more on to mine.

 

I would suggest to do the intake gasket because it's easy with most of the lines removed & return T grommets while in there due to moving the VP return line around. Get all new crush gaskets for the banjos & heck do the back of the head banjo too. 5 hours is all it took for me.

 

Ed

I did a boost test and had no leaks on the intake except at my boost bolt. Did the return tee and the back of the head a while back. The only banjos  have left are the return from the head and the VP, all high and dry for now. 5 hours is pretty darn good for all that. It took me almost that to replace the VP 3 years ago with a helper, guess I am a little slower by myself. That and working in the gravel drive way in the winter does not equal speed for me. But it is done now.

I would recommend using a 3rd gen intake manifold gasket, which is metal encased in rubber, as opposed to the 2nd gen treated wimpy paper, same price too

My intake cover gasket like many others came out in a couple dozen pieced. It's real easy to do while you are in there. It's pretty easy. I used the regulat cork gasket on myne & didn't know about the 3rd gen working.

 

Ed

Some day in the near future I'll have to do the tappet cover (cam cover) seal.

I wished I would have had more 

 

My intake cover gasket like many others came out in a couple dozen pieced. It's real easy to do while you are in there. It's pretty easy. I used the regulat cork gasket on myne & didn't know about the 3rd gen working.

 

Ed

Wished I would have had more time. Cold weather and rain were moving in and I had to button everything up. I had the intake gasket and vacuum pump reseal kit. Looks like they will have to wait for another opportunity. From what I am seeing right now I got 90%+ of my oil leak taken care of. 

 

I took a look at the 3rd gen gasket and it does look a lot better than the one  have. Did not know they were interchangeable.

Edited January 16, 201411 yr by dripley

I have been riding around for 2 days now and no more oily foot print, just a spot or two. I sure a hoping that the tappet cover turns out to be 99% of my oil problem.

Well after a 480 mile trip with the 5'r in tow, no oil leakage. Me thinks the tappet cover is turning out to be the only source of my leaks. everything is drying out and no more little droplets of oil hanging from the under side. While I understand that the wind whips around under the hood, I was surprised that it whips oil around the front of the engine as much as it did.. Glad I did not pull the vacuum pump, I'll just save the kit for when it does start leaking.

Cool....

Ed

I would suggest to do the intake gasket because it's easy with most of the lines removed & return T grommets while in there due to moving the VP return line around. Get all new crush gaskets for the banjos & heck do the back of the head banjo too. 5 hours is all it took for me.

 

Ed

Crush gaskets for banjos???   Get rid of the banjos - go to the full flow fittings - Big Line Kit or equivalent!  (Those banjos and crush gaskets suck - bad design, obstruct fuel flow, etc.!!)

Crush gaskets for banjos???   Get rid of the banjos - go to the full flow fittings - Big Line Kit or equivalent!  (Those banjos and crush gaskets suck - bad design, obstruct fuel flow, etc.!!)

 

All done about 3 years ago when I put the AD on.