Running without covers?
 

Has anyone ever ran their engine without the chain covers in place? The reason I ask, I removed the covers to inspect the tensioners, I can not see where the chain might be hitting the case. The chain noise is on the right side, is there a certain place where the right chain usually hits the case when a tensioner goes bad? How big of a mess will it make running it long enough to see what is going on there, maybe a minute or so? I was going to connect the oil feed lines back to the tensioners then put cardboard on the floor and have the oil dry handy. The chain rails appear to be ok. At idle it is not really noisey, but if you increase the engine speed, it gets the chain dragging noise in the right side.

Yes, you can run it with the covers off, its makes a little bit of a mess, but its not bad

FWIW, When I pulled mine down (79 SC w/ hyd tensioners), I found the right tensioner was froze on the shaft and the pressure relief ball spring and retainer cap were laying loose in the bottom of the chain case!

I doubt yours would be frozen, but it would not hurt to look at the pressure ball and spring that is located just off the side of the plunger on the tensioner.

Check if the rignt side camshaft sprocket are installed in the wrong way and if the chain are touching the housing behind the chain itself.

Take some good pictures and post them to the thread. Perhaps someone can spot a potential problem without you having to go thru all the hassel.

As they say "A picture is worth a thousand words".