Ask them to take it apart and measure the shims they used (if any) and gear protrusion and side clearance. Lot easier to do while its out of the car.
What if my shop when they pull the orig unit on the car says it looks fine, the gasket just went bad, should I just put that orig one back on, with the orig oil pump, with 125k miles on it?
Mr Sony, We own patterns to cast all of our aluminum parts except the V6/350 timing cover. We purchased over 3000 covers years ago and are down to under 700. We have started looking into having our own tool/pattern made to cast these. We machine these covers in house which I have seen a picture some where posted that showed the a cover on the 4 axis rotary with gauge pins in it. You can see the oil pump cavity, that cavity, the pin and shaft bore plus the gasket surface are all machined in that operation without being removed. This keeps the everything square to each other. We even avoid changing tools in this operation to keep the gasket surface square to the pump bores. The dowel pin holes you mentioned, ones with or without pins. It's been said that these covers came to us with precast in holes. We have had to move the holes by milling them, not drilling them to obtain location. They have 75% or better to locate a true position. If I feel a part wouldn't function 100% it gets rejected. Threads are checked with thread gauges and the bolts they see. If a loose thread is found, it get a Heli-Coil, more work on our part. The pump cavity is held to a much tighter tolerance to the gears than GM did. This is one of the areas that has shown higher idle oil pressure along with opening up the passages which the oil travels. We do not set pumps up with feeler gauges like explained in shop manuals. All pumps are assembled dry and checked with a dial tenth dial indicator. If clearance needs adjusting a gasket change is made and the procedure is repeated as many times as needed to get the proper clearance. The drive gear assembly is not always perfect, sometimes the gears is not on the shaft perfectly, so you need to rotate the gear and check the clearance in multiple locations. We then again clean all the parts and assemble with petroleum jelly, Vaseline. The pump cover 3/8" socket is torqued on at 5 lbs. Regulator 1.0" socket at 25 lbs, 9/16 socket adjuster nut 6-7 lbs. Timing cover is then stamped, passenger top side with TAPERF, the date 82919, gask thickness .008, end play .0025 and the builders initials MT (examples). This is so, if your TA timing cover ever needed re gasket-ing you can see what was used with that set of gears and what the clearance was. Mr Sony, I understand that you noticed some things that were not Perfect. I spent a lot of time on this part making sure that it was as Perfect and reliable as I could. There were challenges, but they have been worked out, regardless, I do feel this is by far the best V6/350 timing cover on the market. If anyone receives a part and has concerns your welcome to call me if you find that necessary and I will talk with you. If you install a TA Perf timing cover and it doesn't help a low oil pressure situation then that engine has a leak somewhere inside it.
Well I have a 125k motor with the old cover coming off that the motor is running good pressure readings. I will not be happy if those numbers go DOWN when I put the new cover/pump on.
TA tests the covers they assemble, I think. As much as Ive been harping on the empty covers (because mine is ****), I havent heard a bad thing about the assembled covers, except for price.
Yea the price is a bit much but it appears they are about the only game in town that can deliver what I want, I will pay it.
We did not assemble the oil pump in your cover, so we can not guarantee what your oil pressure will be. The cover you received is identical to every other cover that is sold or used for oil pump assemblies, so any issue most likely lies in how your oil pump is being assembled. Mr.Sony, I don't recall getting a phone call from you to discuss the issue and try to work through it to a satisfactory solution. You would be surprised what a phone call can resolve.
They were manufactured in China, just like every other V6/350 timing cover on the market. Ours just happen to be a nicer casting compared to some you can find, and we machine the cover instead of the Chinese factory. Out of the thousands of covers we hace sold, the biggest issue we ever had was one where it had a hairline crack on the bottom along the oil pan. We welded it and I have it installed on my engine.
You may want to tell your lady/ladies taking orders to say that then. My first call to you all to get prices I specifically asked where the TC cover were made, I asked if it was China or the like or in the states. She said THE STATES. Sorry I did not get her name. I did go ahead and drop 700 bucks with you all.
If you bought one for a 455, then I'm pretty sure she's correct with her answer to your question. When I got my car up here to MA back in 2017, it hadn't been driven much at all in the last 10 or 15 years. Of course, I was driving the wheels off it and all the gremlins that had lied dormant for so long, suddenly surfaced. Needless to say, I ended up having to take the entire front of the engine off and one of the things that was recommended to me by a good friend was to bite the bullet and get the TA cover. Trust me when I tell you it stung a bit but for a basically untouched '70 455 that's closing in on 50 years old, the oil pressure is phenominal and I attribute it to that cover.
I just spoke with her, she said when she was asked where it was made she replied here in the states, because the cover is machined and assembled here. She misunderstood that you were referring to where it was cast. Our apologies. You shouldn't be worried about the quality of the cover, it's a nice forged aluminum piece. The only "flaw" with the casting is the holes are cast in place and we have to drill them in the proper location, so sometimes you will see a witness where it didn't clean up (where the cast hole was off center). The important part of the cover is the machine work, and that's why we bought raw covers and created the tooling, fixtures and CNC program to do it ourselves, so it would be correct. The high side of our tolerances are LOWER than GM's low side tolerances. We drill the oil passages larger than any stock or aftermarket cover available. Each cover is hand deburred and inspected with thread gauges,Go/No-Go gauges for the pump cavity, idler pin hole, drive gear shaft hole, and dowel pin holes, the oil pump cavity is depth mic'd and a oil pump gear and timing cover are installed to make sure it spins freely. Each time we start a new run of timing covers, the very first timing cover machined from that run is assembled with an oil pump to make sure all of the tolerances come out correctly for both with and without a booster plate. Any adjustments that are needed to the program is then made and the next cover is checked. If you have any questions with it, just give us a call and ask for me.
So will my shop have to drill any holes (due to off center issues) out to make it fit or will it be plug and play?
Mr Sony, Mike Jr just posted on the other thread that he hasn't heard from you, is this correct or not? Giving everyone the benefit of the doubt and assuming you called, he's not aware of it and maybe there was some miscommunication, why don't you try calling again and asking for Mike Jr? It sounds like he's willing to make it right. Better that than this ongoing bad-mouthing don't you think? Jim
I work nights. Aint gonna stay up for a chance to chat on something that cant physically be fixed, especially over the phone. Plus my car woth the 350 in question is my only car. I can't have it down for the count. I appreciate you reaching out and offering solutions, but the only reasonable solution is for me to get a new stock good shape cover and replace it with that when I have time. I understand the work that goes into the fully assembled covers, but I would sooner bolt my old cover back on (better preasure readings) that spend $500 on an assembled one. Edit: Fine. I'll call Tuesday. I don't know what can be done over the phone. I know for a fact my new cover has to have .010 worth of shim or else the gears bind so hard you cant turn them and leaves witness marks on the wear plate. This then translates into much less oil pressure than I had before. Less than 4 psi at hot idle and with the white spring about 35psi at 3000rpm. Cold ilde psi is the only improvement at 70psi. For the OP's sake I'll shut up now.
