2002 Taurus timing cover removal Vulcan 3.0

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Tzu

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Oct 12, 2012
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near Buffalo, NY
My stepson has a slight cooling leak near the rear head by the timing chain cover on a '02 Taurus 3.0 Vulcan. He said about 8 oz a month he has to add to recovery tank. The car only sees city driving with very rare country driving with 68,000 miles on it. It looks to be a fairly involved task of getting to it since many parts have to be removed. He has started buying some parts and tools to fix it, but I advised him to add some bars stop leak or just keep adding coolant as needed because he would like to sell it soon and buy a used truck. If he starts tearing it apart and needs help, I might be loading up my truck with tools and going to my MIL's house where he is staying while in college and doing it in her driveway. Has anyone done this before and what was the most PIA trouble you dealt with. I put a lot of work into some vehicles of mine because I still own them and plan to for quite some time. I drive Chevys but Ford has their own way of doing things too. Thanks for any tips.
 
It isn't a bad job if you do it for a living, about the only special tool you need is a harmonic balancer puller. Sometimes a bolt will break in the timing cover, which can be a pain to remove.
If its only leaking 8 oz a month I would drive it and let the next owner worry about it. This is a common problem with these engines.
 
I pretty much agree with Roadkingnc here. Once the water pump and balancer are off it's just a couple more bolts to have the timing cover off.

I haven't had any of those bolts break yet, but plenty of them felt like they were close to it. I think some of them would have broken if I tried removing them cold, but I always warm the engine up first and haven't had an issue.

The worst part is dealing with the one nut that holds the coolant reservoir in place.
 
A Youtube video shows a guy dropping the exhaust Y pipe, starter, oil pan to get to the leak. Are those things needed or can you just remove the timing cover without the added fuss. I was going off the video alone but maybe he made it more complicated than it had to be?
 
I don't typically remove the oil pan to take the cover off.

Be careful with what kind and how much chemical cleaner you use to remove oil, grease and other residue as it will make the rubber oil pan gasket (the part that is under the timing cover) swell and not fit properly.

When you reassemble, use some RTV (I prefer Ultra Black, Ultra Grey or Right Stuff) on the top and bottom of the pan gasket, and a small blop where the corner of the timing cover meets the block and oil pan. Never had a leaker...
 
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