How bad of a job is it to replace a timing chaing in a 89 f250 with a 351W the vehicle has No A/C . what neeed to come off and do you have any tips. I am afraid I am going to break some bolts in that aluminum cover

 

Hey there! I did my water pump and timing chain (91 F150 2WD, 5.0) back in July of this year. I don't think it's a job for the faint of heart or the truly inexperienced wrenches. Having said that, it really isn't all that bad. Just follow the steps in the manual and take your time - avoid temptation to take short cuts. You pretty much have to remove the entire front of the engine bay right down to the bare block and heads and move stuff like the PS pump out of the way. Make sure that you have a good quality gasket set and a good quality double roller timing chain 'cause you won't want to do this job more than you have to. IIRC the only "special" tools that I needed and didn't have was the proper puller for the harmonic balancer so I rented one from a local parts supply house. I have really good air tools so getting the crankshaft nut off and stuff like that was a breeze. You may want to consider a new water pump at this time as well - you know- "while your in there and all". It took me substantially longer than the flat rate at the local dealers service shop - then again, I'm not the sharpest knife in mommas drawer.

Good luck with it and post if you have any problems.

Cheers!

Mike

 

I have my experience with working on cars. This is my first FORD and I tend to work more on the GM vehicles. Looks like alot more work than my OLDs and chevy to get to the chain. Do you think all the accerories have to come off? I would like to only take off whats needed. The chain isnt broken yet but it seems rather sloppy. Would this cause poor acceleration? does anyone have any detailed pictures? of the Task at hand

 

-Ummm...you shouldn't have to remove the heads to replace the timing chain.

I think I may have read that wrong, Haha, sorry!
You do not need to remove the intake manifold though. Just the accessories, pulleys, harmonic balancer...remove timing cover, if it's been on there a while, you MAY need to use heat to remove the longer bolts that go through the timing cover.
Remove camshaft bolt, pull camshaft gear, timing chain, and crank spocket off as an assembly.
Make sure to line up the two dots, as in your instruction manual, put new set on as an assembly. Torque all fasteners (Camshaft bolt) back to specs and put 'er back together.
A new front seal is very easy to put in at this point, and for about $8, I would.
As advised from above, a new water pump might be a good idea if your old one has a few (hundred thousand) miles on it.

-Rad

 

PHEW!!! I gotta pay more carefull attention to how I word my replies! Yeah, I meant that you just have to remove the Rad, accessories, T-Stat, hoses, vacum lines and all the other crap that gets in the way of getting to the bolts that hold it all together. When I was done tearing down and I looked into the motor bay I could see the entire front of the block and the heads and all. I had forgotten what a "naked" block looked like from my old days of wrenching on the "simpler" motors. You don't necessarily have to "remove" the accessory, just unbolt it and get it out of your way.

You haven't said how many miles are on this motor your thinking of working on. I replaced my timing chain and water pump at 150,000 miles because, in my experience, it is the right time to do that job. I was prepping the truck for a very long pull with the RV in tow and I hate problems on the open roads. I guess you would call it preventative maintenance. 150,000 miles is a fair life expectancy for a factory timing chain and water pump (in my opinion - YMMV).

Following up on radramrod2's excellent input, make sure that you line up the timing marks on the cam and crank sprockets as soon as you get to them - manually turn the motor over with a socket and breaker bar. I had set my engine at TDC #1 before I even started the process so I didn't have far to adjust once I got to the gear set. Be SURE that the timing marks line up dead on with the new set and don't turn the crank or cam with the gearsets removed from the shafts.

I wish I had taken some pictures and regrettably I didn't - didn't have my digital camera yet! Oh yeah, be really carefull to keep track of which bolt goes where on the water pump and timing chain cover. It is critical that the right bolt goes back into the right hole - otherwise she will leak like crazy. I believe that the manual also wants you to apply RTV to the threads of only a cetain few of the bolts - read the instructions carefully.

Cheers!

Mike

 

Don't forget Fredric's idea (which my Dad showed me). Get a piece of cardboard, roughly draw a layout of the front cover, and punch holes in the cardboard were the bolts are. Then as you remove the bolts, push them thru the holes in the carboard to keep them in the proper locations ('cuss there is at least 3 different lengths of bolts for the waterpump & timing cover). ...Terry '90 F150, 302