chain tensioner problem?
 

Hello, I have 3k on mt 80sc since I rebuilt the engine. I have developed timing chain noise on the right side. I took it to a Porsche mechanic who listened to it. He said it sounded like the chain is hitting a chain guide. He also said, that I could have not measured correctly when placing the shims in on that side behind the cam nut. I told him I put the correct number back in....Or the cam timing could be off...More than likely he said it is probably the tensioner. It is either bad or is not getting oil pressure..The tensioners are pressure fed and are new? Is he on the right track? Is there something else I could have screwed up when I put it back together? :confused:
Thanks!
Alan

Any advise from anyone before I open her up to look?
Thanks!!

The best advice is to pull the covers and see what is going on. Post pictures when open and then the advice will come.

A video with sound will get you a dozen guesses.

lol I hear you! I just opened it up. I can press down on the tensioner with my finger so that's it. Wow! Its only a couple years old! Oh well...Im ordering a new one right away...
Thanks!
Alan

The shims for chain parallelism are not super critical, therefore I doubt that is the cause of the noise. While the shims are very important for side-wear on the sprockets, the engine will still sound OK and you won't get a lot of clatter. For instance in my '87 one sprocket was installed backwards by someone and the parallelism was off quite a bit. Engine always ran fine and made no adverse noises.

Recently I found a seized chain tensioner idler sprocket arm on my race car. This was a result of the old style idler arms being used. The old style idlers do not have a bronze bushing and the tensioner bore galled the chain box shaft that it rides on. The idler sprocket and I-shaft sprocket are significantly side-worn, but again no adverse noises. You can see some blueing of the sprocket teeth if you look closely. It's not the flash. The teeth are definitely blued due to excessive heat. Had to get pretty hot, considering the chains and sprockets are fairly well oiled down near the bottom of the engine?



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Yep that's it. The pressure fed tensioners have a lot of spring tension in them and and very hard to compress by hand, whether they have oil in them or not.

I have some good used ones if you're interested in one.

Thanks! Dang I just ordered one...oh well...What do you want for them? thanks for the offer! Thanks for all the input! Hope my problem is solved :)
Alan

Make sure to reset the cam timing. When the original tensioner failed in my 1973, the chain jumped a couple of teeth throwing off the timing and it bent a few exhaust valves. Between the updated tensioner kit and head work, it showed me that I better start doing my own work if I wanted to keep driving a Porsche.

Yike! Good advise...I'll put the gauge on it after the install and check the timing....
Thanks again!