timing chain cover: cracked dowel hole, damning?

[BerniniCaCO3]

Hi!

As it happens I've ended up with 3 timing chain covers.
I went to use the cleanest one, which is also free of the corrosion around the bottom channels to the water pump: a good thing, that.
There was a dowel still stuck in it, and trying to remove it, I chipped off an edge of the hole that the dowel fit in (cast aluminum, weak? who would have thought! oops :-/ )
The engine block still has 2 pins in it, which is why I needed to remove the one from the timing cover.

...still good & usable?
I'm thinking as long as I center it on the harmonic balancer --and there's still the other dowel pin, and half of the arc left on the broken hole-- there's no real risk of mispositioning, and it's not like that hole is a fluid passageway.

Still good, and go ahead and use it?

Or go to timing cover #2, which is also fairly corrosion free though not quite as clean, needs a good scrubbing down though-- and also has a dowel stuck in it.


Btw, can I take a glass plate, some sprayon adhesive, and some sandpaper, and make a grinding plate to clean up the timing cover surface? Or bad idea?
It's not so critical as say the head, so I'm considering it as possible. Grind the surface down 1/64", clean it up.


thanks!!
-Bernard

[1987cp]

Pics would help ...

I'd just use the one in best overall condition. I wouldn't be at all concerned about light pitting. Didn't you have one that was brand-new?

I would also attempt to remove a locating pin from an engine block before a timing cover. Not likely to split the block by wiggling out a coiled bit of stamped metal.


What are you getting at with the sandpaper? I know of no need to try to flatten either mating surface on a timing cover; I've had my best success just using Ultra Black with no gaskets, so no worries as long as the mating surfaces are clean.