Engine and Transmission Tech

Hello, this is my first post, but I have lurked here for a while. This site has been an awesome resource in my own MGB V8 conversion, so thanks for all the help :-).

As part of my Buick 215 engine build, I purchased a Buick metric timing cover manufactured by Silver Seal. It seems like a very well priced option to get a new oil pump housing, new oil pump gears and a better positioned oil filter housing. In the course of my engine build, however, I found the following issues:

1) On my timing cover, the oil pump cavity was too deep, such that the surface of the gears were below the mating surface on the order of 0.003", when they should be proud of the surface. If I had installed the pump cover with the standard gasket, I probably would have had minimal to no oil pressure. Unfortunately, it was almost 2 years since I purchased the cover, so I ruled out trying to get Silver Seal to make good on the issue. I ended up using sandpaper on a flat surface to slowly remove material on the mating surface until I had the necessary gear protrusion.

2) On my new timing cover, the boss face for the distributor mounting flange was higher than stock. I have a used OEM metric cover that I used for mockup that I was able to measure and found that there was almost 1/8" difference between it and the new cover, with the new cover being higher. The difference between the stock 215 cover and the new cover was even greater. This caused me to be concerned about the amount of engagement between the oil pump shaft and distributor shaft and the engagement of the distributor gear on the cam gear. It probably would have been okay, but I chose to machine the boss down to match the 215 cover using a shop made jig and a handheld router, which worked great.

I share my experience because I have read of one other instance where the oil pump housing was too deep on a Silver Seal timing cover, and my guess is these are not isolated issues. If you buy the Silver Seal cover, or any other aftermarket cover for that matter, I highly recommend checking it as soon as you receive it, so you can exchange it for a correct part. If you find you need to fix it and don't have the ability to do it yourself, the economy of the Silver Seal product may quickly be negated by a machine shop bill.

Anyway, I hope this helps the next guy :-)

Gary, thanks for posting this helpful thread.!