Did you have to remove the engine to change the timing cover?
No I did not, I removed the crank pully, jacked up the motor slightly, and removed the motor mount.
Removed the oil cover, cut the oil pan gasket, applied "the right stuff" for a new gasket, used the supplied gasket for the cover-reinstalled everything, been on the lake 5 times this season so far and not a hint of a leak knock on wood.
The RIGHT way is to YES pull the engine but if you do a search you'll see many people do it the same way I did without issue.
I'm confused.... If the cover is off why the heck did you not have it done correctly. I get it sort of, time and money. But now it'll have to be done twice. Our shop would not have even tried to patch that.
I did what you are doing and I would never do it again. Lift the engine out. It is almost impossible to get the gasket on right.
You are going to have to lift the engine somewhat anyway to get the pan to clear the oil pump pickup.
Hey, don't skip those little metal strips that go along the pan rail. They keep you from distorting the pan where the bolts go through. They are a pain but you can start with a center bolt and work your way to the edges. And put a dab of silicone or Mercruiser perfect seal where the pan gasket meets the timing cover gasket.
Did you put any in the corners in the back of the engine where the curve and the flats meet?
Hopefully, you used a torque wrench on the bolts. Very easy to distort a pan.
Curious what you used. Hopefully it wasn't Silicon like something you buy at Home Depot.I basically took the oil pan gasket and put the Silicon where it was on the old one.
Curious what you used. Hopefully it wasn't Silicon like something you buy at Home Depot.