Valve Lifters

[papa karl]

Hey YellowEye man!! I have a LT so I don't think mine came with VVT's, but the saga thickens. Another $120 and now I have a head to use. New guy said the HLA's were hard to go in due to left over coating/detergent/cleaner from the other dude.

So, spent the weekend putting things back together and found a messed up spark plug thread (I'm convinced now I got another head), and the chain adjuster doesn't seem to go all the way out.

Should I start another thread or should I keep going?

 

[YelloEye]

Actually, you're right there. I always get the year split messed up when they went from the L61 to the LAP, it was 2009. Heh, sorry about that.

Which chain tensioner did you get? There's a mechanical and a hydraulic, the mechanical one has a flat hex head, the hydraulic one is raised in the center.

Hydraulic is the clean shiny one.

You can keep it in here. It's all somewhat related.

 

[papa karl]

I have the mechanical one, and it seems to work except it doesn't seem to extend out far enough as I think it should. I can rotate the plunger way down till it's "cocked", then press down to "spring" it, then if I want, pull the thing completely apart. I think the tensioner works, but maybe I'm missing 1/2 inch or so.

Another thing is if I slowly turn the engine, there are "clicks" (or something like it) once every 1/3 turn or so, but while running, everything seems ok. It started out ok at first, then after 5 min or so, started running rough.

Well, I went back to look at the chain, and it's kinda loose (I think I jumped a teeth or two). So I just shut it down for the night.

Is there a way to check the timing with only the valve cover off? The timing marks didn't line up (dunno if they should) at TDC.

Once again, DANG!!!!!!

 

[YelloEye]

The newer one is the hydraulic unit, supposedly better for DD cars. Of you decide to stick with the mechanical one, once you get it installed you'll want to smack the back side or push on the front from overhead with the valve cover off to extend it.

The chain has 3 colored links, you'll need the side cover off to make sure it's timed correctly.

 

[papa karl]

Oh GREAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So the only way to time this motor is to pull it down again??? There's got to be a cheat or shortcut here. TDC is easy to find but the 10 and 2 position thingie wont make it run semi decent?

Oh well, the car runs like crap anyways (shakes a whole lot). The CEL says cam sensor but the $60 replacement didn't change a thing, there's a 1 second startup clatter (which I'm sure is from the lifters) , and this morning, the gauges went nuts and tranny was shifting funny for about 5 min (no steering either).

I hope all this from the timing chain tensioner not having the chain tight. Maybe the chain got stretched somehow, but at 85K miles????? What the hell???

Gonna wait this thing out till the original head guy comes back from the funeral stuff. This is almost too much!!

Thanx guys