Doing a reman longblock install on a 99 z71 and noticed the timing cover has the boss for the crank sensor but its a blind hole and the threaded insert is not in the bolt hole either. This is an A.E.R. reman and the cover is new. Has anyone ever seen this? The Reman application is 97-00 Vortech 5.7.

 

Clean up the original cover, install a new seal, and install it instead. You'll see stuff like this all the time with reman engines if you do enough of them.

 

Problem identified and solved. It seems the carbed version that was built for Mercruiser Marine had no holes in the cover but still had the crank reluctor. All that was required is to knock out the blind plug and install the threaded insert that had to be removed from the old cover. This engine has 3 yr 100K warranty and AER will pay for this. No problem. Reason we opted for this paticular engine is that it uses a 4 bolt main at no extra cost and they accept 2 bolt as core.