Thread: Trouble setting timing.

Clacking noise sounds to me like the chain is slapping around like the tensioner is junk.

Or ur lifters are not primed. And yes the slack should be on tension side

project car and school does not mix well never did.

So I got the car running. Was running fine. but after driving about 20 miles on the freeway this clacking noise began sounded like it was coming from cylinder 2 or 3. Any ideas?

Before I Replaced tensioner and did timing there Was some side to side play on a few of the rocker arms, Time to replace them? But when I pushed down on the hydraulic lifters there was No movement on any of the Lifters... Car has 165k miles

Was the tensioner engaged in the above pictures?

The rockers moved with the cams tightened down?

yes the tensioner was engaged, the issue i was having is that i was setting the timing marks but the slack was staying inbetween the cam gears, so i put a socket on the intake cam and rotated counterclockwise to move the slack to the tensioner side

the rockers moved side to side with the cams and old tensioner in. it was like literally 1mm of side to side movement 2 rockers on the intake side and 1 on the exhaust side

See the phrase under my screen name. They really are a pain

here is a video of the sound that started after about 20 mins of driving. it seems to get much louder when i use the accelerator.

Was there that much slack when you initially popped the valve cover? The tensioner should take that up. If you still have that much slack after rotating the motor clockwise (by hand), your tensioner is shot or not engaged.

With the cams out, the rockers will move that much. They just float on top of the guide/shim/top of the HLA. With the cams in, it should be a lot harder to move them, if at all. If the HLA's are still solid, I'd get a feeler gauge and check the lash clearence. With that many miles, the rockers could be at the end of their life. The lobes on the cams are probably semi worn, as well.

The tensioner presses against the timing chain guide which pivots off a point towards the bottom of the motor. If you pull off your tensioner and it springs back after being compressed, and it is hard to push back in, that guide behind the oil pump cover could have cracked, and that's why you are not getting tension on the chain itself.