Tappet cover gasket

[Wulf]

How long should it take to change a tappet cover gasket? Cummins says that is where my oil leak is at.

[LiveOak]

I take it you have already tried to snug the tappet covers down a bit more and observe is the leak stops or slows?

[Wulf]

There is a piece of gasket missing and they are saying 22 hours labor just want to confirm if this sounds right

[Mopar1973Man]

Really... Boy someone got your goat... I just check my Mitchell 1 books and its a 4.7 hour job... Period! Not hard to do either... Pull the fuel filter, ECM, and VP44 and change it out... I did my buddy's 92 Dodge in about 4 hours...

[flman]

Geez, it did not even take me an hour to pull the cover, adjust the valves, and put the cover back on, I have a new gasket, but did not even need it. Unless you are talking about another cover.

[Mopar1973Man]

Cam cover down on the driver side above the ECM... Run the length of the cam..

[flman]

Cam cover down on the driver side above the ECM... Run the length of the cam..

I was thinking about that, even I6 gassers have a cover like that if I recall that long ago?

[Wulf]

Really... Boy someone got your goat... I just check my Mitchell 1 books and its a 4.7 hour job... Period! [ATTACH=CONFIG]1335[/ATTACH] Not hard to do either... Pull the fuel filter, ECM, and VP44 and change it out... I did my buddy's 92 Dodge in about 4 hours...

Can you get me a copy of that page. I sure would appreciate it, will try and get them to change their quote. Any one have the flat rate that cummins uses? Thanks alot. Dave

[Mopar1973Man]

Can you get me a copy of that page. I sure would appreciate it, will try and get them to change their quote. Any one have the flat rate that cummins uses? Thanks alot. Dave

Emailed to ya!

[Wulf]

Thanks for the help, could not get the local Cummins shop to budge on their quote.They said that they are going by what they have done in the past and that 20 hours is what they need.I told them to stop work luckily they have not started work charged an hour to inspect.I have a couple places to get quotes from, pray for good favor for me.:thumbup2:Dave

[Mopar1973Man]

I really don't understand 20 hours... Remove VP44, injection lines, fuel filter housing, and any plumbing in the way... I think there is 5 botls holding the cover on. Pull the brittle seal off and slip the new on the edge. Reassemble in reverse order... If it wasn't for the VP44 I'd tell you go for it yourself... Even the VP44 isn't really to bad...

[ISX]

I really don't understand 20 hours...

SOME of us like to take our TIME!! From what you said needs to come off, I am thinking 40 hours minimum I can see it taking a lot of time but 20 hours does seem a little much if they actually know what they are doing. I mean thats 2 days, I had my engine out and back in in that much time, and that was by myself. I would tell them that's BS and wouldn't accept any more than a 10 hour quote.

[Mopar1973Man]

No joke... I assembled a Dodge 360 CID V8 engine in a little over 12 hours... That means starting with a empty block and putting all the parts on it and tuning and adjusting everything plus putting the engine back in a truck body and starting it... So if I can build a V8 360 engine in 12 hours why would you need 20 hours for a simple gasket???

[Wulf]

I really do not understand why the Cummins Crosspoint says that was the avg. time to change the cam cover gasket. When I picked up my truck the shop manager explained that experience has shown themthat this is a fair est. of time, I called another garage (Diesel ____) this guy is 69 years old told me he is not working fast anymore but said that no more than 12 hours and it would probably be more like 8 hours.Local Dodge dealer said 5 hours but they did not know what I was referring to when I said cam coverwhen I explained it they came back with the quote I asked if they had ever changed one they said a couple. So I am wondering if I should go with the Dodge dealer's quote or go with ____. I am concerned that the Dodge dealer will find other things to charge for if they run over on time. I want to avoid any problems have had them with dealer with extended warranty issues.Thanks for reading Dave

[LiveOak]

If labor rates are similar, I would go with the dealer in this case. There is not a lot of stuff they can find wrong......at least I would think. I would tell them to do the tappet cover only. IF they see something that is wrong that should be fixed (this is reasonable and happens) to call you FIRST to get the go ahead and give you a revised cost estimate.

[Mopar1973Man]

If labor rates are similar, I would go with the dealer in this case. There is not a lot of stuff they can find wrong......at least I would think. I would tell them to do the tappet cover only. IF they see something that is wrong that should be fixed (this is reasonable and happens) to call you FIRST to get the go ahead and give you a revised cost estimate.

Smart idea!

[rburks]

4 HOURS X 2 MEN=16HRS. + 1HR. FOR LUNCH EA.=18HRS. 2-1/2HR. BREAK EA.= 20-HOURS

LMAO sorry about that, shame on me:lmao:

[Mopar1973Man]

4 HOURS X 2 MEN=16HRS. + 1HR. FOR LUNCH EA.=18HRS. 2-1/2HR. BREAK EA.= 20-HOURS

LMAO sorry about that, shame on me:lmao:

Funny part is since there isn't enough room for 2 guys to work on it 1 of them has to be a supervisor...

[Wulf]

4 HOURS X 2 MEN=16HRS. + 1HR. FOR LUNCH EA.=18HRS. 2-1/2HR. BREAK EA.= 20-HOURS

LMAO sorry about that, shame on me:lmao:

thats 8 hours for 2 men or 4 hours for 4 men

I am going with Diesel ____ because I know and trust his work'

a little more cash is worth the peace of mind!!!

[KOYOTE]

if i could convince someone to give me 20 hrs on the pushrod cover i could take the rest of the week off. but until then 5 hr. flag time plus parts, very simple and straight forward job. only done 2 in the last three years they dont leak that often sorry for your luck man.