This where I love having a machine shop at my disposal. I have a few things here from the shop I'll take home, see what I can do. I'll have to pull it, clean it up and see what it looks like.

 

Just curious, is this supposed to have a hole here?

 

Well... I wasn't planning on dropping the oil pan. Guess I am now. I'm such an idiot. I put in the brass ring that goes behind the timing gear, I turn for one second and I hear a "blup" the ring fell off and went dropped straight down the oil pan

 

So there's no chance of reaching in there with on of those grabbers that you push the button and possibly fish it out? From your photo, it looks like there's a good enough gap to reach in there with a grabber. Perhaps drain the oil and look in there with a really bright flashlight to see if you can see and retrieve it.

 

I thought about that, I was going to pick up something with a hook, possibly a coat hanger. I do have room, if that all fails it's coming off.

 

Managed to get that brass ring out of the oil pan, with the assistance from a metal coat hanger.

Anyways, onto my question. Does this look right? Normally I'd consult my book. But, I left it in the trunk of my BMW. I'm having it serviced while were on out on our Oregon coast trip

I should add, the old timing gear and chain I took off of this thing, it was looser than hooker on nickle night. It very may well have skipped a tooth.

 

Glad you got your ring out. Noticing a towel playing defense there below the gears!

So your marks look like they line up pretty good. You have concerns?

 

I just wanted a second opinion, due to this being my first time doing a timing gear set. I should have put that towel down the first time. Live and learn Haha.

 

It's amazing how much difference can be made by changing out worn timing gear. On your old sprokets... did they have that plastic/nylon coating on the teeth? If so, how much of it was broken off? I renewed timing gear on a 289, a 318, and a Slant 6. They all had that nylon (I guess it's nylon) coating on the teeth... I guess it's supposed to make it quieter. But seriously now... who here has changed timing gear and later said, "Wow... that's kinda noisy without the nylon!" I know I never noticed a difference in noise on my cars.

Much of the coating on the teeth was broken away on the old sprockets... which really created a lot of slack. Was probably the reason why my Duster and Galaxie both jumped time. On the Slant 6, it wasn't near as bad... but we changed that timing gear before anything bad happened. We were changing the water pump on that car, and decided to go for the timing gear since we were so close having the water pump off.

 

The gear was nylon, it didn't look like anything was broken. The chain had a lot of slack, I had to move the crank back one tooth to get the new one aligned

 

Nice truck! Great work

 

Did you ever find out if the timing cover is supposed to have the opening you had circled? It doesn't look like it should be there to me, but I could be wrong. If it's not, that could be the reason for the truck overheating when pulling.

 

No, I never did.... it looks as if the aluminum was corroded through. I'm playing it safe and just getting a new one.

 

Thanks, I appreciate that.

 

That sounds like a very good plan. Better to be safe as it does look corroded through.