AJP V8 Crankshaft trivia

[Flatplane8]

Hi,

I'm just posting this in case its of any help in the future. My car is a late 1997 4.2 V8, engine number ending in 630. I took the front timing cover off tonight as I'm stripping the engine down and while I was there measured the front crank journal. It is 2.3 inches in diameter, so one of the 'small' journal type.

When I bought the car 21 years ago, Andy @APM checked with the factory and the engine had never been rebuilt.

I don't know what engine number marked the change to the larger 2.5" journal crank, but its beyond this one.

[Flatplane8]

At least the wet sump gives it a nice flat surface to sit on, as I’m using a pallet as an engine stand at the moment. Took over 4 hours to get one head off…..I found the missing cam chain guide bolt too

[Flatplane8]

Not sure how long the bolt has been there. The only time the front cover was off was over 15 years ago at just over 100k miles when the timing chain was replaced (now on 178k miles). That was done by Andy @ APM and he found a chain guide bolt in the sump then. It seems to be a common problem. I've wondered about drilling a hole in each and lockwiring them together.

The oil pump drive gear has machined the threads off part of the shank too.