Lets say that is the case...
How hard is it to replace the old chain with a new one?

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Leland Pate

___79 SC Targa

I don't want to be negative, and I'm sure some one with some experience knows of tricks. But, when I was doing my rebuild I started with split cases layed the lay shaft in with the chains on. Simple. As I progressed with the rebuild I never paid any more attention to the chains. As I put the engine together I was spinnig the moter on the engine stand so when I was working on the bottom of the engine it was facing up making assembly real easy. Any way I have the chain boxes on ramps in,(wich were sort of a pain) then I realize the chains came off the sprockets on the lay shaft!!! It took me two hours or more and much cursing and yelling and screaming before I finally got those chains back on. To this day I'm not 100 percent sure they are on, my only conselation is that the motor turns freely by hand and there is no crunching as the engine turns so I am pretty confident they are on correctly. Oh yeah another thing they are dual row so you have to get it on both halfs of the sprocket. One thing I didn't do when I was trying to get them on was remove the ramps that probably would have made it a lot easier. It was the most frustrating experience of the whole rebuild. As I say I'm sorry to lay this negativity on you but I think I was psychologicaly scarred by the experience and it helps to talk about it every once in a while.

Seems that learning the hard way is sometimes the most effective way. I can relate the now amusing story of having pulled the left chain out of the engine (without splitting the case) only to realize that I had no way to thread the new one into and over the sprockets and back through. I sat there with a big imaginary "S" for 'stupid' on my forehead.
Well...since the older engines had that nice big sump cover, I removed it and managed to thread a wire over the sprockets and back through and with a lot of effort, feed the chain, link by link,prodding through the sump hole, onto the sprockets.
So separate a link on the existing chain, join it to the new chain and use the old one to thread the new one through. You don't do it by turning the engine because pistons will hit the inactive valves. Just sort of jump the chain over and onto the teeth.
I kept a wire tied to the end of the chain just to be safe that it wouldn't fall into the crankcase before I joined it into a complete loop. It's a challenging job which includes valve timing but it is pretty straightforward and rewarding. You'll need to set both sides to the same spec to do it right. Have fun..take your time and enjoy!

Gotta figure out how to edit reply.
Anyway, I forgot the ramp tip. Keep a wire tied to the center ramps while installing so that you won't suffer losing one where it can't be reached. Make sure that the notched through bolts that hold them in grab the retainer wires in the grooves. That insures a properly aligned ramp.
Leland, ironically, I esperienced all this on a 79 Targa also.

Well, my friend forwarded this page to me, knowing I've been having some problems. Here it goes. I own an '87 930 and two years ago I had a hydraulic chain tensioner fail. This sounded like someone knocking on the case of my motor with a 1" box end wrench. After we replaced the hydraulic tensioners, the noise was still there. My mechanic tried everything without breaking apart the case. Finally, there were no other options but to tear down the motor. When we took the middle driver side cylinder off, the piston sat there cocked sideways a tad. The circlip which holds the wristpin into the piston had worked itself out and consequently marred the cylinder wall, and cracked the piston. A year later, when I picked up the car from getting the A/C charged, when the motor decelerated, and as it passed the 2000 rpm mark, there was a horrible rattle. My mechanic thought that maybe there was something stuck in the tensioner and suggested I change the oil. That fixed the problem at that time. Now, a year later the same problem arose. I changed the oil and filter and this didn't fix the problem. My mechanic told me to try plain 'ol Castrol 20-50 (I HAD been using Syntec 20-50 the whole time) and a quart of that Prolong stuff. Didn't fix the problem right away, but about 10 city miles later, the problem was gone again! This is the driver side tensioner I might add. If anyone can help me with this I'd SURE appreciate it! My mechanic thinks maybe this is one of those cars that doesn't like synthetic oils? Would sure like to hear someone else's opinion. Thanks!

OK, supposing I have a failed/failing tensioner...how can I tell by inspecting it? What does a bad tensioner look like?

Also, why do you think it goes away after the engine warms up?

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Leland Pate

___79 SC Targa

TURBO911, LOOK AT THE 3RD POST IN THIS TOPIC, I HAD THE SAME PROBLEM. VERY SIMPLE TO FIX, NO PARTS CHANGED....