Recommend Ford Mechanic, S. King Co.

[coachcw]

Make sure that you have a balancer puller on hand . just be careful with the through bolts in the timing cover they can break off and cause grief. also as far as cleaning gaskets stay away from those roloc discs I,ve seen crankshaft damage from guys getting happy with them , a good old scraper is your friend . theright stuff gray works really well along the pan lip. 

[Fl0und3rz]

You guys are scaring me on the bolts.  I might just get a new set, given the age.  Balancer puller to be picked up from O'Reilly.

I got some ultrablue gasketmaker for the oilpan junction and permatex form-a-gasket (the old brown stuff) for the other gaskets. But I'll grab some of the right stuff on your recommendation.  Do you have recommended sealant for the water pump, thermostat and TC surfaces?

Oh and gaskets will be done the old fashioned way, cursing and scraping.

[Woodchuck]

The gray coach talked about is good for the cover, should not need it on the water pump or thermostat. The big thing with the bolts is that they are small, rusted nearly every time there is a coolant leak at the timing cover, and break easily. The real pain is drilling out the broken pieces, is very easy to get off line while drilling and opening a whole new can of worms.

[Fl0und3rz]

The gray coach talked about is good for the cover, should not need it on the water pump or thermostat. The big thing with the bolts is that they are small, rusted nearly every time there is a coolant leak at the timing cover, and break easily. The real pain is drilling out the broken pieces, is very easy to get off line while drilling and opening a whole new can of worms.

Been there, done that, on an air cooled VW exhaust stud.  Fortunately, used heads were cheaper than a tank of gas at the time.  Penetrating oil worth it on these if the threads are not exposed?

My anxiety is up over these stupid bolts (makes you want to grab the responsible engineer by the shirt collar).  Fortunately I will have the old TC cover to use as somewhat of a jig if I end up having to drill out a bolt.  On that note, any good guys/gals in S. King or Pierce (will be doing work in Puyallup) to take it if I do snap one off in the block?

Any recommendations on replacement bolts? Stainless?

[timberghost72]

I wouldn't use stainless. Stainless bolts are brittle and if you happen to break one or in the future you need to do this job again for some reason and break one, they are very difficult to drill out. Then you'd really be swearing.

[baker5150]

The gray coach talked about is good for the cover, should not need it on the water pump or thermostat. The big thing with the bolts is that they are small, rusted nearly every time there is a coolant leak at the timing cover, and break easily. The real pain is drilling out the broken pieces, is very easy to get off line while drilling and opening a whole new can of worms.

Been there, done that, on an air cooled VW exhaust stud.  Fortunately, used heads were cheaper than a tank of gas at the time.  Penetrating oil worth it on these if the threads are not exposed?

My anxiety is up over these stupid bolts (makes you want to grab the responsible engineer by the shirt collar).  Fortunately I will have the old TC cover to use as somewhat of a jig if I end up having to drill out a bolt.  On that note, any good guys/gals in S. King or Pierce (will be doing work in Puyallup) to take it if I do snap one off in the block?

Any recommendations on replacement bolts? Stainless?

If it were me I would replace the bolts with factory spec.  or similar but a higher grade bolt.
Stainless bolts can be brittle and will expand/contract at a different rate than the cast block. 

[Fl0und3rz]

Thanks guys.  Will go with oem or better, non-stainless.

[coachcw]

grade eight and grease the bolts

[Fl0und3rz]

Went off without a hitch.  Took about 12 hours start to finish with a helper and a lunch break.

Small leak at thermostat flange, but I got lazy near the end and didn't clean surfaces enough or use sealant.  Small fix.  Only snapped two small screws, one on the ignition timing indicator and one on the fan shroud bracket.  NBD.

Valve timing on timing chain replacement went smoothly.  Judging by the chain deflection, I probably should have replaced it anyway, so it was nice to have every part on hand.

Every bolt got antiseize or permatex thread sealant for the ones around or into the coolant passage.

I did use the permatex therightstuff gray on the TC cover to block gasket but I used permatex high tack gasket sealant on the water pump and backing plate gaskets, just because it was easier to have the gaskets well in place on reassembly.

For future reference, TC cover and water pump bolts are all or mostly all 5/16-18.  There were 6, 4 inch, and 5 that varied between about 1 1/2 to 2 1/2 inches.  Making a bolt map helped immensely on reassembly, as did leaving bolts in brackets or placing in new parts if possible as they came off.

Water pump and timing cover gasket could have been original (water pump had black epoxy-like paint on it and the pan gasket appeared to be the original (so original timing cover gasket, likely).  So not too shabby for 160K+ miles. 

Thanks again guys.

Now for the thermostat leak and hubs next weekend.