today I went and installed the water pump on the 7th gen motor that I am prepping. this is my first time ever doing one so I was paranoid as hell.

first thing I did was turn the motor upside down since the crank gear doesn't have guides like the intake cam gears.
I took off only the left bank cam gear covers along with water pump over thinking that would be enough, I was wrong...
I used a bungee chord to keep tension on the main guide as I removed the tensioner.
I slowly turned the crank counter clockwise to shift the slack towards the water pipe side.

now that the timing chain slack was shifted to the water pump I couldn't get the water pump out. I decided to take the other cam gear cover off. I looked down at the chain and it was off the gear. even though I didn't feel any kind of jerk or anything but I will I start to worry.

so under further observation I could see the chain was still on the gear , looked as if the guid between booth intake cam gears was a bit of a save.

I was able to play with the chain and get it back on properly plus stick a 1/2" ratchet to secure the chain on the gear. which gave enough slack to remove the water pump..

same thing happened on the tensioner side when I removed the bungee from the chain guide but I was able to put the chain back on the gear properly with another ratchet
luckily after I was all done I spun the motor until all the gear marks matched the gear marks. I'm guessing the engine had a water pump serivice done before due to permanent marker used on the gears and chain.

I just ordered the last of the parts I need today.
if the weather stays nice I'll be installing the engine in too weeks.

engine on stand


chain secured to gears



crank gear


tensioner side cam gear marks



water pump side cam gear marks

 

Pm me Next time. I could have walked you through it. My first advice is to flip the engine back over like it is in the car. I just did one yesterday.. Simple

I only typically remove the left side cover and pump cover, I installed a 7th gen engine Tuesday a full change over job also. Ill be adding a bunch of those pictures to my IG this eveing. I have a lot of pictures of this engine and its change Over. So if you need reference of something lmk.

What I do is, pull #1 plug and verify along with the timing marks and pointer on the WP cover that the engine is at true tdc, by the piston. I also pull the Covers and mark the inside cam lobes to the caps along with a mark for rotation on the cover and balancer with a white out pin. What i'm really doing is verifying its exactly where it was when i took it off. Even if the chain had come off, you would have been able to put it back exactly. That is my tech tip to you.

 

how thorough is the Nisformance guide on the website?

one thing I noticed people mentioning in searches is that the alternator doesn't fit perfect and that they need washers.

I've also seen where some people used the factory 5th gen tensioner instead of the Nisformance tensioner.