Bad timing.

The gasket between the block and timing cover was missing up at the top, causing oil to spray up and make a sludgy mess on the top of the timing cover and everywhere else and also I was suspecting after lots of other tests that I could have a bad timing chain. So all that was left to do was tear into it. The timing chain ended up having a horrible 5/8″ of deflection and the max allowable is supposedly 1/2″ (even that seems excessive to me.)  It even looked bad – really saggy. I slid on the new one and it doesn’t deflect at all. I am feeling pretty good that this will solve its poor running issues (hesitation, popping through intake,) but after it was all back together, the water pump gasket didn’t seal … so it has to come back off.

After removing the extra gasket (oops) the water pump sealed up nicely with no more leaking.

old sloppy chain