Kinda Odd question

[VirginiaPS13]

Car is an 89 Coupe all stock SOHCOk this maybe kinda long but its all pretty relivent to the question so...A while back my car started overheating, I checked the coolant and it appered to have what looked like rust in it. Flushed it out, it seemed like the more water i ran through the more of this stuff came out. So finally after about an hour and a half it looked better, filled up with anitfreeze and was all good for a few weeks and then it started overheating again. I decided to take the Rad. out and have it flushed, well when i took it out, the back of the rad. was rusted, so thats where it was coming from. So I flushed everything out again and got a new rad. and put it all back together. The whole time all this has been happening I have also noticed a rattle/chatter noise on start up, I figured it was a lifter since it went away when the car warmed up. Well after the new rad. everything was good again for a few weeks and it overheated again. So I decided to check the oil since its been overheating like this and it had water it in, so i figured i blew a headgasket.Fastworward to now. I have since pulled the engine, replaced the headgasket, oil & water pump, thermostat, clutch, timing kit etc.. Here is where i kinda get to my question. When I pulled the front cover on tear down one of my plastic chain guides was broke(completely gone, little pieces in the oil pan)I guess thats where the rattle was coming from. So I cleaned everything out put it all back together, back in the car. Well we started it the other night and it ran but was out of time, decided the oil pump was 180 out, went to drain the oil and water was already in it, from like 2 mins of the car being on.I talked to a guy i know and he said that if the guide broke it could have damaged the timing cover, well we took it off and sure enough it had a huge gash on the inside of the cover on one of the water passages for the pump. So my question is Would this gash in that passage allow water to get in the oil? Im trying to figure out if I had 2 problems happening at once that turned in to ONE huge PITA!I would really like some imput before I spend over a $100 on a new front cover and it really turn out the block is cracked or something, I have already spent enough $ on this stupid engine.And I know this is probally the wrong section to post in but will get more traffic.

[Firewind]

Whoa! What a huge post for such a small question. Here let me help you sum this up a little, maybe some more people will chime in.

Summery: He over heated a few times, replaced his radiator but the problem came back 2 weeks later. Turns out he had water in his oil! So he pulled his engine and replaced his head gasket. He also found out, while rebuilding, that the timing chain guide broke and when it did so, it put a gash in his timing cover near/on a water jacket. He wants to know if this will leak and if this was possibly why he had water in his oil.

Well VirginiaPS13, is the area that has the gash cracked? Has it disfigured the mating surfaces of the timing cover? Has it dug so deep into the metal that you can see light through the other side? Most metal can handle a light gash, and still be fine.

[breadbox]

You seemed to have answered your own question.

There is a large gash in a water passage seal on the front cover.

JBweld it or get a different cover that isn't broken. I recommend the latter.

Other than that sounds like you did a nice basic rebuild.

Also how well did you inspect the top of the block and the head when replacing the gasket?

[Rlmoore88]

Bump

[VirginiaPS13]

I know it was a long post I just wanted to cover everything.Well I took the head to a machine shop to have it cleaned and resurfaced, as for the block since its iron I just took a 3m scuff pad and got off the old gasket.If you look at the back of the cover there are 2 passages one on either side of where the water pump mounts well the chain rubbed on one of those, you cant physically see a hole but its bulged out/cracked but not all the way through, on the other side(which would actually be the inside of the passage) Im guessing as thin as is there now it could expand/contract under heat and pressure?
Modified by VirginiaPS13 at 1:26 PM 7/28/2009