Some of you guys have had the pleasure of wheeling with MtDewMike. He is the current President of NEXterra and one of the OGs still hanging in there.
This past month he began to hear what was the sounds of his timing chain grinding on against the worn down guides. We all know what that means. Well after a couple weeks of sourcing all of the parts (thanks Cherry Hill) it was time to tackle this beast.
We blocked off the whole weekend and knew that even though it was only going to be a 2 day project we wanted to give it a head start. Mike came down on Friday night after work and we instantly kicked it into high gear, removing all the major components limiting us from access with the case.
Friday Night
With the bumper, grill, fan shroud, fans, alternator, PS pump, A/C pump coolant drained and all hoses removed it was a perfect time to break for the night.
Saturday
The next morning we took on a little rain, but that wouldn’t stop the RI crew. Put up a 10x10 tent and Suresh from CT showed up to give us a helping hand and crack some jokes about his Jeep being easier to work on. We drained the oil and kicked it into high gear.
When you realize that your PowerTank is empty on a Saturday and no one can fill it, but you need an impact gun to remove the Primary Drive pulley without an air compressor. After many phone calls and the only closes electric impact 45 minutes out, we decided to go at it with the Breaker Bar Starter Trick. [only use in a bind] {this was a bind}.
Placing the breaker bar on the primary drive and a strap around the bar to hold tension on it, we set it over the drive frame horn about 6”. Mike (not happy at all with our solution) cautiously turned the starter over. *KRAAAAAAK* Bolt free!
Cover off, Marks are Marked and all bolts ready to come out.
Primary chain out, and on to the secondary chain and guides.
All new guides and chains in!
Great success for the end of Saturday. Much rejoicing and beer was needed after Phase 2 was completed. Now we just need to close it up and start butting it up.
Sunday
Starting fresh and early with cleaning all the old gasket material out taking care not to get any in the oil pan
Cleaned off the timing cover and started applying the new RTV high temp gasket material
Cover all buttoned up and torqued down. Things wen’t pretty quickly from here on out, mounting all the other components back into place.
Once it was all put pack together, it was the point of no return. Key in hand and ready to listen for a piston slam into a valve, Mike turned over the engine.
She purred like a kitten. “It hasn’t been this quiet since I first bought her!
I need to do mine one of these days.