This post makes me think that chain tensioner failure is not as catastrophic as I originally thought. (knockin on wood)

A friend had one fail at speed in a 72 E 'back in the day'. It took out everything, intermediate shaft, case, etc. He still has the car, he built a new engine, a hot 2.4 with carbs.

Can you put the collars on turbo tensioners?

I had a tensioner fail on my '77 2.7l a few years back.

I was dropping off an old girlfriend of mine when I noticed a rattling coming from the engine - it went away as soon as I revved the engine a bit. I drove the car home, listened to the tensioner cover with a stethoscope, had a mild panic attack, and then immediately shut the car off.

I didn't start it again until I replaced the old tensioners with carrera tensioners. That was about seven years ago, no damage to the engine, no skipped teeth, no compression loss, etc.

It doesn't have to be catastrophic, I guess. It scared the hell out of me, though.

Being concerned about sudden strange engine noises is a good thing. This guy didn’t think so.
”Most Outrageous 911 Engine Failure?“

Best,
Grady

Ditto on my '72. Right side failed, making all sorts of bad noises but did not damage the engine.

my passenger side failed on my SC at about 110K. It rattled when cold but after warmup and at higher idle, it went away. I upgraded to the carrera tensioners and have been fine since then. Just imagine a big metal trash can with a bunch of thick steel chain in there...now start dragging out the chain. Thats what it sounded like...scared the hell out of me! fortunately, no damage and after the carrera tensioners, all is good.

I haven't had a failure but last year I was talking to a local wrench out here and he mentioned that lately (last 5 yrs or so) he's seen as many carerra tensioners fail as the old ones. He's telling his customers to choose, and he actually feels that for most people, they are better off replacing non carrerra cars with the old mech. tensioners, and just checking their operation annually.

If there is room enough.
When you do your compression check, remember to disable the pump and ignition and open the butterfly in the carbs.

Hey guys,

Update: I checked cam timing, and all OK. Didn't bother with a compression test and just rebuilt the failed tensioner, buttoned it back up, and it's running great.

So it appears a failed tensioner ( completely bottomed out ) didn't lead to any other engine damage.

The other thing I found, which no doubt caused the power loss on the track, was the distributor rotor button had come apart.

My thoughts are, maybe this tensioner failed some time ago... This car has spent time on the track and being driven reasonable hard on the street for some time.

I've only just driven the car around the block, so I can't say for sure if it has more power than before ( correct cam timing now ), but it felt pretty good..

Craig H