dlpalumbo

It appears my timing cover on left hand side is leaking. From what I've read this should be a straightforward job after the exhaust, heater tubes, insulation and tins are out of the way.

Are there any gotchas here? The engine had a reseal last year. The mechanic complained about the 'plastic' timing chain covers as if he was expecting trouble. I've read that there have been rumors that the covers were phenolic, but I've read Cobalt confirming that they are magnesium.

He may have over tightened them, dont know. I'll probably replace all the washers as well.

So any suggestions on covering all the bases would be appreciated.

What's the torque for the nuts?

Thanks,

Dan

Rocket Rob

Torque is very light. Use an inch-pound torque wrench. Its 84 in-lbs (7 ft-lbs).

As for tips, I would replace any fasteners that look iffy. When I replaced my timing chain cover seals, one side was NLA but they shipped two for the other side. Fortunately, the sides were interchangeable. Not sure if that is still the case.

John McM

Just replaced mine, albeit I had the ease of doing it with the engine out.

Once you get to the cover it's not that difficult. A big gasket and a lot of washers.

The previous mechanic had put something on the nuts. As a result when I tried to undo them the studs came off, not the nuts. Hope you have better luck as it meant more work getting them off and Loctiting the studs. I used Dow Molykote 111 on the gasket and washers. Many do them dry.

Btw For the OCD people out there, I did clean up the 111 when I finished.

dlpalumbo

I dug through the PET and found the tightening torque for 'chain housing cover' to be 4 ft-lb. That's less than the valve covers???

I was considering gooping the gaskets. John did you do both sides of gasket and washers? Did you torque to 4 ft-lb??

On another note. When I was fussing with my valve covers I was trading off getting a general purpose in-lb torque wrench or a specialized one set to 84 in-lb.

I bought a specialized wrench because, "When have I ever needed an in-lb torque wrench before?" HaHaHa. Jokes on me.

Thanks for comments.

John McM

According to my light refurb post I used 6 Nm (I post there for my records as I quickly forget!)

111 was smeared over all rubber parts, all sides. As 111 is an o ring grease I figure it's perfectly safe for that application. Anything to keep leaks at bay. There are so many possible places to leak on these.