1998 550 Maranello "sorting" thread--DIY

I decided to replace the timing gear stabilizer bearings, which are pressed into the block. They didn't seem to have anything wrong with them but the new ones are cheap so I went ahead.

Slide hammer removal was talked about for removing these once, and it doesn't work with the engine in the car. Even if the engine is out it won't be easy because there is very little clearance behind the inner race of the bearing to slip a blind hole bearing puller collet.

Again, the Draper bearing removal tool for the front cover works here magnificently. Made quick work of removing these bearings (Photo 1)

New bearings were chilled with freeze spray, and the seats coated with engine oil. Then they were gently tapped in place using a bearing seat tool (Photo 2)

The old bearings, which were likely put in the engine in 1997 at the time of manufacture, looked perfect (Photo 3)
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I wanted to get a good look at the front oil pump shaft bearing. Bradan found a 550 recently that had one of these bearings fail, locking the oil pump and fouling the engine due to oil starvation.

Mine looks as good as I can guess it should, and it spins easily and freely. No play in the shaft. (Photo 1)
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Now for the step I have been dreading for a while...replacing this timing cover in such a way that it won't leak again.

Step one was to clean both mating surfaces of the timing cover with acetone. Like four times for each mating surface. (Photo 1)

I decided to use Loctite 518 anaerobic on the recommendation of Brian Crall and Bradan in various prior threads. Smear a very thin layer of this stuff on the entire mating surface (Photo 2)

Apply the gasket onto the engine. Do not press it into place, just get it approximately to the location it should be. (Photo 3)
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Once this was done, I smeared a similar thin layer of 518 on the cover, and proceeded to place the cover over the crank into position. This is a complicated endeavor that I found best done while sitting under the car. I held the two timing shafts and cover in my left hand, and had the oil pump sprocket in my right hand as I threaded everything into position. Take care not to touch either mating surface as you do so. Once it was all in general place, with the oil pump chain properly threaded into it's tensioner track, I took a rubber mallet and gently tapped the timing gear shafts in an alternating fashion and the cover easily seated once the gears meshed with the crank. It was far easier than I thought.

There are no pictures of this step for obvious reasons, but take your time, think about the parts and how they fit together, and it will be easy!

Now that the cover is in place the oil pump cover can be replaced the same way using sealant and OEM gasket.
Crank seal was tapped into place using a length of PVC pipe after coating the inner race of the seal with a thin layer of engine oil. (Photo 1)

All done. (Photo 2)
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GS- I believe it's 2 inch PVC. I will check.

Sark- the play that I demonstrated in the timing gear in my video is gone. There is a TINY amount of wobble in each gear shaft with the cover off without the gears engaged, but you really have to look hard to see it.

Once the cover is in place there is absolutely no play. Being that the back of those shafts is seated in the rear bearing and the gears are meshed with the crankshaft when the cover is installed, I imagine if you can wiggle the shafts with the timing cover in place then your timing system must be seriously fouled up. Like all of the balls missing from the bearing

 

It has come time to remove my cams to check lifters and replace seals.
I was lucky enough to be made aware of a great new set of tools for removing and replacing the cams that allows you to do this task without the cams moving from their assembly marks. As those of you who have done this before without the tool, the cams do not sit flat in their journals with the assembly marks exactly lined up. Removing cams would result in them "snapping" out at you as the valve springs forced the cam into a different orientation as soon as the caps are loosened, and replacing them carried the risk of bending the valves unless you had a herculean grip on the cam at all times. Difficult to do with a lubed shaft.

Enter the geniuses at Maranello Skunk Works, Dave Burch and John Cribb. They invented what you are about to see:

Three bars of aluminum, machined precisely to fit IN BETWEEN a set of cam lobes are placed down on the cams when they are still fastened in the head. Each one is fastened down by a threaded bolt that is designed to be screwed into the corresponding spark plug well to where the bar is pressed firmly against each cam. One of these three bars also has spots for two cable clamps, which hold each cam in a fixed position. When everything is applied, it looks like this (Photo 1)

Once the apparatus is in place, you remove all 28 cam cap nuts, washers, and all 14 cam caps, remembering to arrange them in correct order when you set them aside (Photo 2)

At this point, both cams are held down in their journals by the three through bolts in the aluminum bars. You then back the nut on the through bolt back one turn at a time, distributing the "loosening" evenly between all three bars. For example turn the middle nut one revolution, then the back one, then the front one, back to the middle one, etc. (Photo 3)
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Once all three nuts are loosened to the point where the cams have uniformly risen off the lifters, you can remove the front and back bars and then lift both cams out at the same time. The worm clamps on the middle bar hold the cams fast and prevented them from rotating at all as they were removed. Voila! (Photo 1)

At this point I was able to fully disassemble the cam assemblies and lay them out in an orderly fashion for retrieval later. Note that I marked the dowel location in both the cam gears and the cam itself for easy reassembly. Should save some time later when I degree the cams. (Photo 2)

I was then able to inspect all 48 of my lifters. All of them were rock hard and incompressible except ONE, which had about a millimeter or two of "spring" to it when pressed down. Luckily, I had a replacement lifter in my cabinet.
I noticed a few lifters with circular marks on them. These lifters of course can rotate freely in their seats, and I am guessing that a little fleck of contamination pinned between the cam lobe and the lifter can mark it like this. I inspected each cam lobe for the corresponding marked lifter and found nothing of note really. Lobes were smooth and shiny. (Photo 3)
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You know John I wasn't even worried about that. I removed the cams with the sprockets still attached and sprocket bolt torqued. Once the cam was on the workbench I was able to grip it in one gloved hand and use a milwaukee electric impact to remove each sprocket bolt. Easy peasy.

I'm going to experiment a bit with the electric impact and the cam holding tool for torquing the bolt when I reassemble. I will advise.

 

John,
Post #274 in this thread

 

Now that the cams are out this is the easiest time to perform a leakdown test, except of course for the fact that the engine is stone cold. No need to move each cylinder to TDC.
Intake is off with intake ports sealed shut with painters tape.

Using my OTC cylinder leakdown set, I began my testing.
I was amazed at how good everything looked. The highest leak cylinder on bank 1-6 was number 4, at 3.4% (Photo 1)

Everything was fine until the last cylinder I checked, which was number 7. When I hooked up the tester the painter's tape over the intake port popped open and there was an air leak. This is what I got on the gauge (Photo 2)

So this is my final leakdown sheet (Photo 3)

Even with the intake valve bleeding air, cylinder 7 is still at 9.3% leak. I am NOT inclined to pull the whole damn head for what is probably one small valve leak, in an otherwise perfectly running car.

But I want other opinions
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John,
It is entirely possible. When I looked at all of the intake ports there were some that were coked and most were okay. I didn't climb into the engine bay to peer down specifically at those two intake valves last night but I will do that today. Stay tuned.

I think pulling a head is well beyond my capacity and that I run the risk of creating a much bigger issue with head gasket leaks by pulling it.

 

Thought I would get a look at the intake valves of cylinder 7, which was my problem intake on leakdown testing. This is what the valves look like. (Photo 1 and 2) Pretty coked up, and that crud down there is hard stuff. Therefore, I am presuming that the valves may not be closing properly leading to my leakdown issue. The answer is going to be for me to reassemble the motor and run it REALLY HARD for a while with some Techron I think

I will now begin to reassemble the timing system. I have a more precise way to localize TDC now, which I assembled from odds and ends parts I found in my garage and on eBay. Essentially this is a poor man's copy of Paul Hill's excellent tool for this job. This dial gauge screws into the spark plug hole and offers a very precise way to localize TDC. (Photo 3).
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