Tikking time bomb : timing set '68 472

[Rdtreur]

Last night I got the crank hub off my crank. I had to make some sort adapter to make sure the crank did not break or bent. After some anti rust/penetating spray and some loc-tight freeze & release. It did the trick :-)
After pulling cover off I find out that my cam Sprocket was very, very far gone....

["Cadillac Kid" Greg Surfas 15364]

Ramon,
That is just about normal for a(n almost) 50 year old timing set.  Unless you have already don it I would strongly suggewst dropping the oil pan and cleaning out what you find there.  The nylol coating from the cam gear is down there and cleaning it out would be considered proper procedure.
Greg Surfas

[The Tassie Devil(le)]

G'day Ramon,

Looks a lot like mine was.

Word of advice.   Make sure that it is the star-washered bolts that go back in the replacement cam sprocket.   Use longer ones, like those that hold down the oil pump pickup, and you will be pulling it down again.

I totally second the removal of the sump.   You might not find the pieces in there, but the oil pickup screen will be full of the little pieces.

I knocked, picked and pried all the pieces in tho picture out of the oil pickup screen in the picture, and couldn't believe that it could have held so many pieces, but it did.

Bruce.

[TJ Hopland]

They didn't need to be 50 years old to look like that.    I remember doing my first one when the car was about 7 years old.  That car did have around 100k on it.   I did one a couple years ago on a 40k mile car that was that far gone.   When I got the car I looked down the distributor hole and it looked decent.  I think it only took 3 months to disintegrate completely. 

People say Cloyes is the only trusted brand.   Lots of bad stories about other brands especially store brands.   Most of the horror stories involve the crank sprocket shattering.   Sometimes as you are installing it and other times after a thousand or so miles.   Cloyes is a big brand that most stores can get.   They make a stock link belt type and 3 versions of a roller (bicycle) chain type.   All work fine for a stock engine.   Price ranges $40-$150 last I checked so even the most expensive one is not that bad when compared to the labor to get to it.

[AZCadillac]

Great advice thanks fellas, the only thing with removing the oil pan dont you have to remove the differential though??
well on my car I have a 1969 Eldo.

[TJ Hopland]

There is no way to remove the oil pan from an Eldorado without splitting the engine and transmission apart.  The transmission blocks access to several of the oil pan bolts.    If you want to remove the pan you have to either drop the transmission out the bottom or take the engine out the top or take em both out and split them on the ground.   

If you don't want to do that you can take a short cut and pound the dowel pins that hold the timing cover into the block which will then allow you to lift the timing cover off the lip of the oil pan.  Once the cover is off you drive the pins the rest of the way through and catch them.  After you reinstall the cover you drive the pins back in and hope you don't have any leaks or too much crap in the pan.   You can see the two pins near the bottom of the block in my photo above. 

[Glen]

As I recall from when I was trying to change the timing chain on my 68 ELDO the problem was the cross member, not the transmission.  All the pan bolts were accessible all the way around except the ones covered by the cross member. 

The best way to figure this out is to get under the car and look.  It is very obvious. 

[bcroe]

Good pictures; about what would be expected.  I can not understand that no matter
how many times this story is told, others will keep right on driving their 70s cars with
original timing set. 

I know its a lot of trouble, I have changed a dozen chain sets including Eldos & Toros. 
The E car crossover shaft is right up under the bottom of the oil pan.  Bruce Roe