just bought a 95 3500 4x4 with 86,000 miles. has a oil leak in the front of the motor. does not seem to be the front crank seal. looks to me like it is from the timing cover area if front or the injector pump. i need to degrease the complete area and see if i can pinpoint it. it almost looks like it could be from the timing cover gasket. i did not think that that was a common leak area. any ideas? what kind of job is it if i have to pull the cover? thanks.

 

Degrease and spray with aerosal foot powder to find the oil track. Has the KDP been taken care of?

 

whats the kdp? and how will i know if it has been done?

 

You shouldn't have a killer dowel pin (kdp) problem, that was taken care of by the time the 2002's came out. If you do a search there is plenty of reading on the subject though. You probably just have a seal leaking.

 

Check all the case bolts for tightness. I had a pretty good leak from the front and ALL of my bolts were very loose. Some I could turn by hand. Snugged them all up and oil leak was gone. Also check your pan bolts. Most of mine had worked loose too.

 

the truck in question is a 1995.

 

My 95 pin had worked out about 1/16 or so and it was a relief to know I caught it it time to prevent damage. The pin is behind the front case cover and is not hard to take care of. Do a search on KDP and get all the info you need. Also a chance to check all the other bolts in there for proper torque.
Put a new seal in at the same time.

 

In the back of the timing gear case, there is an alignment pin pressed into a hole in the block. The pin is there to align the timing case to the block. Some holes do not fit tightly around the pin and the pin can vibrate out of the hole and fall into the gear train. The pin is then rattled around by the timing gears until it either falls into the oil pan, gets kicked out through the side of the timing case (most common), or passes through gear train bending the camshaft and ruining the gears and case.

The only real way to know if it's been taken care of is to remove the timing case cover, be prepared to contain the pin as getting the cover off is the hard part by far.

Typical damage below, this crack is always hidden under the fan pulley