coolant in oil after doing timing chain guides/tensioner

[EstoMax]

hey all,

i just finished replacing my tensioners/guides on my sohc hardbody and just as my luck would take me there was coolant in the oil after i started her up.. @#$@#

i only ran the engine a few minutes to warm it up, and after warming up noticed it. so i went ahead and drained the coolant out, no oil in that, and drained the milky light brown oil out too.

i assume somehow i went wrong putting the front cover on as the only place that coolant could get introduced into the oil from this job is the transfer passage from the block to the front cover right? The seal i put on looked to be decent after i took the cover apart, but it probably leaked under pressure.

the FSM says to take off the oil pan when taking the front timing cover off. anyone here do that? It seems like it's a motor pull type job to take the oil pan out for this. if you don't take the oil pan out, it is of course hard to get the front cover because the upper headgasket has to line up and the oil pan is right there on the other side.

anyone who has done this job successfully have tips? I am frustrated and need a break

[Rev_D21]

I bent the front of the pan down slightly to get the front cover out. I ended up taking the pan off in the end because I didn't want the plastic of the guide floating around in there. To drop the pan I removed the crossmember under the engine. That gave me great access to the pan. Did you check the front cover to make sure the chain hadn't worn it's way through into the water jacket?

[EstoMax]

dang. sounds like i might be dropping the cross member a bit then. the old guides weren't even terribly worn, but the tensioner mustve been cause the engine was pretty rattly, and it was actually quiet after the new guides/tensioner were put on. the water jacked was fine too. i guess i will dig into this deeper than i wanted

cheers
Marko