That looks like a lot of wear. Ed at ENGNBLDR recommends to replace the cover with any signs of wear. Apparently they have a tendency to crack right along the line the chain wears in the cover, because the groove affects the integrity of the metal cover. They don't cost too much, so replace it. Cheap insurance because you DON'T want a crack to form after you have already done the timing job. Just my opinion though.:thumbsdow kill the cover

 

I agree with Yakerat, its not worth the risk of having to pull the head back off to replace the timing chain cover. Burn that thing dude:deadhorse
Think of that horse being that old cover!

 

Well if your chain cuts the cover it has a tendency to mix coolant with oil and that's a whole lot of negative for your engine ..

 

If you have it all apart already, it would be kinda dumb not to replace it, it's like $60 IIRC.
And Ted (engnbldr.com) has great parts, prices and service.

 

:headbang:

I appreciate the advice.

This sucks though. It means I can't do anything more on my truck this whole weekend, when I had planned on putting in like 12 hours.

 

And while it's all apart, you might want to replace the oil pump and water pump, even belts and hoses.

 

yeah...totally replace it...i recently had wear like that in mine and i found it out TOO late! There was a hairline crack in the case which allowed coolant to get into the engine...not good! i ended up replacing the cover, chain and gears, and the chain guard (reason why there was so much wear...they broke).

It's worth the extra time/cash now to replace it than to get it all together and 5000 miles have to tear it all back apart

 

Uh, yeah, actually, update on this:

I went back and cleaned and inspected the cover really well, intent on installing it if I couldn't detect any structural damage and thereby proving everyone smarter than me wrong.

However, upon my extremely careful inspection I found there was actually about a 2" tall hairline crack in the water pump that I had been unable to see before. I am now convinced that it was THIS crack, and not my head gasket at all, that was causing my engine troubles. Now, there may have been fairly serious gasket trouble after my cooling system started leaking into the head, but I believe all of this actually started with the timing cover wear.

So, yeah, if anyone reads this thread in two years, replace the damn cover.

I'll order the parts tomorrow, hopefully I'll have my truck running in another 2 weeks or so.

 

So, yeah, if anyone reads this thread in two years, replace the damn cover.

Don't worry, some noob will dig this up thread in two years, and hopefully learn

 

im a noob and i learned! i bookmarked your whole build and then this for when it comes time to tear apart my 22re so thank you for the detailed steps and pics and thanks to all the experts who answered questions. def gonna be coming back to these posts when my time comes. hopefully its just not for a while