Possible tensioner issue
 

Sad day for me. Lots of major work on the 86 this winter which included replacing both cams and all rockers with a used but nice set with no pitting. Tensioners both offered lots of resistance during collapsing them down during the cam change. Cam timing was set with a dial gauge and came in pretty much at .049" on each side, just like the manual said. Chain guides were all good so not replaced. So, I get it back together and fire it up and it is noisy, just like the valves are loose and some extra clatter in there as well. Now I can't go in and check the valve clearances today (which I doubt is the issue) because of course, the engine is hot,. Worse yet, I am out of town this week so I get to stew about it all week.
My questions for the forum are:

1. Do the tensioners take a while to bleed any air out? Car has run about 15 minutes with no change in noise level.

2. Could one or both tensioners be damaged by collapsing them? All input appreciated.

By some small chance, when you collapsed the tensioners did you re-insert the granade pins to keep them collapsed for installation?

Well, it is possible to damage them I guess. How did you collapse them? Generally, if you collapse them ever so slowly in a vise so oil can bleed out the cylinders there won't be any damage to the internal seals. Removing the one of the chain covers will tell you pretty quickly that the tensioner is weak......the chain will have some slack in it.

I recently had a hydraulic tensioner go bad after 7k miles. It would only slightly rattle after sitting overnight and started for a few minutes. Took off both covers and the left tensioner had slightly less resistance than the right side. Replaced it and also put in the internal stops that are talked about here on both tensioners. Now all is quiet and good. Also put in all new guides again as the left guides were all pitted. Hopefully I won't have to worry about this again for a long time.