Chain tensioner or?

[crustychief]

79SC 185,000Mi Carrera tensioners at 150,000Mi, Mobil 1 15/50
I searched this forum this morning and found a lot of posts on this topic. Most of them say a noise "like a chain being drug over a metal trash can" from idle and goes away when oil pressure goes up. This morning I went to the store about a mile away and everything was normal until I pulled into the parking lot. Outside temp 62F, easy drive under 3000RPM. My car made a noise a little more subtle, more like a "chain being pulled over a piece of wet wood" but it did not happen at idle, it happened with a little gas 1300RPM and up. I opened the hood and listened thinking it was the A/C compressor ( it is only a year old) or the fan/alternator. The sound was definitely coming from the right side chain housing. I drove it home very easy / downhill and when I got in the garage the noise was gone! Can a tensioner be intermittent in going slack? I am not going to drive it anytime soon but would like to know if that is possible. I would think that during startup in the cool temperature the oil would pump the thing up as hard as Chinese algebra and possibly slack after operating temps were reached, not the other way around. Thanks in advance.

[dlagerstrom]

Other stuff can go bad in there. My '82 had a ramp break. It made the same noise. If your ramp cracked but did not completely fall apart, it might act as you described.

I am sure more expert people will chime in.

Good luck.

[Zef]

Open this housing to give a look....may be a ramp...may be a tensioner goes bad...may be the chain is elongated....

[crustychief]

I guess I will have to open the housing. I will get some gaskets and such and get on it next weekend. Thanks for the replies!