Right on man thanks ill update on how it goes

 

Alright fellers heres a pic of how i got my ip gear and housing marked before i take it off, balancer puller worked great, i used the bolt puller style from harbor freight haha, cheap and worked perfect.

got it marked on the bottom and i have it marked at the top in relation to the dowel pin, can't really see that one.
Question is, how big are these gear teeth? will i be able to TELL that the gear has skipped a tooth by my mark or are they like tiny teeth, or are they more like flywheel teeth.
like i said i've never dug into one of these before.
if the markings are in good order. tomorrow morning when its cooler out, i'll pull that, pull the cover, replace my gaskets and front crank seal, slap it back on there and get it bolted down with new sealant on the front of the pan, which i believe was leaking, get my water pump surface and gasket ready, put my new and improved "water pump and thermostat" sealant on there and pray to the good man upstairs that it works and don't leak.
raelly hopin it works this time guys.
any tips and tricks or pointers to make sure not to forget are welcome!

 

there are marks on the gears of the crank, cam, and on the IP gear iirc.

 

oh. well then thats just dandy! haha

 

just in case...........https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1...alignment.html

 

The problem is you can't see the marks unless you put the tower on first and then the front plate... That's how I did it.. But the engine was on a stand with no pan and the Ip was installed finger tight to the Gear tower upside down at the time so I could put a good beed of RTV in the grove and place the plate in the grove and fit it to the alignment pins on the front of the engine all before the High Tac dried... Then I put bolts in all the holes into the block to hold it for a day before removing the bolts that hold the pump on for install of the pump with a nice blob of RTV in the four bolt holes that are welded to the plate (two on top, two on bottom) more RTV on the bolts as I installed them in that four also. Then torque to bolt spec. You can do it the way you have it now but you must be very careful not to move the engine during the Job.

 

thanks racer
@94 i might try some of those links, they make pretty good sense to me

 

alright guys feel good about the timing cover going back on, and the harmonic balancer, new front crank seal, feel good about that. water pump back on with new gasket, all the bolts went back in good except the same bottom one,one that goes through the welded nut into the oil galley if you wanna call it that, and it tightened down and then just went lose. but when we had the cover off we looked and ran a bolt through it and it went through, but when i was getting all the bolts tightened down with the pump on, that same bottom one went lose. so, that being said, last time it did the same thing, but i pulled the bolt out and the bolt threads were screwed, so i was like okay it didn't pull the threads on the nut, i just tried to put it in crooked or something, BUT, last time it didn't even leak from the bottom where that bolt was! it leaked from the top! so what do you guys think, should i pull that bottom bolt out with the pump still on the truck, run some kind of tap through the hole to clean it out, and get a new bolt, i mean theres no way that few microscopic shavings could hurt anything, and if i needed to i could change the oil, but do you guys think that would be worth trying before i fill her up with coolant? i stopped after the water pump because i'm just not gonna risk it before i do some more researching and get some opinions

 

So you checked that weld nut and it looked ok? Now its not holding, Crap....Well I see nothing wrong with trying to clean the threads, I just don't think it will help the nut hold any better. Try putting some Teflon tape on the bolt like it was a pipe fitting and see if that will make it fit tighter. Try a test with a same size nut and bolt in a vise to see how many wraps you can get away with and give it a try.

 

thats a good idea! what would you actually call the tool used to clean out the threads? i end up referring to everything as a tap -.- haha
like i said last time it did this and it didn't even leak at the bottom where that bolt is.
That being said, if it DOES leak, i'd like to know how much i can get on the truck to test it out for leaks just to have it run and idle, because it will leak at idle. Can i get away with everything but the fan? that's really the only PITA

 

You can run it without the fan, but I don't know if there's clearance enough to reinstall with the radiator in.