mwright57

Hello, I humor myself as a basic maintenance mechanic. My 2000 5.4 was squealing pretty good so I stopped to see why. The belt was frayed and the tension pulley looked to be the rain. I took off the 3 bolts on the tension arm and the pulley fell apart... But then there was a funny "tink" noise. My flash light showed a roughly 3 inch hole the same size and placement the tension pulley was.

The hole appears to be in the timing chain cover. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe this area is not under pressure. So would I be able to just JB Weld the piece back in? Tig weld? Or fully replace it? I'm supposed to be driving 4 hours up north this weekend to go camping and I would really not want to break down. Any tips and suggestions would be great!

Thanks!

redfishtd

With all the trouble of getting it off there-- I would replace it .Heating it up welding may warp it ,what good is it if leaks oil ? Good time to check your guides , I would also change the tensioners as the gaskets go bad and lead to low oil pressure . You need to clean oil pan out, where do you think all that aluminum went to as it ate thru the cover . I don't know what it did to the oil pump . Seems to me you have a lot of cleaning to do under that cover .
Hopefully it did not damage reluctor wheel or crankshaft position sensor in the bottom of the case .
Your screen on the oil pump pick up may be clogged up .
Good luck .