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I just got this, wanting to compare it to the guide in the Melling kit, ended up ordering the Cloyes sans sprockets kit (the 9-4201SX, same as Old Blue mentioned,) spoda arrive today. Another surplus part.
The car had not been driven since the chain noise event, except after removing the valve cover to establish that the timing chain was tight, just a few miles here and there to move it as necessary. By the time we started the noise had abated.
The timing guide was damaged in three places (see pics.) Do not like the design. It lets the chain slap around. Roller chains do not like high speed. Bad combination. I attribute the guide break at the bolt to fatigue and the other damage as a consequence of that. Timing guide bolt was fine. I suspect that a broken guide causes a broken bolt, and not the other way around.
Nothing else looked amiss. Both chains were tight. Zero sign of chain stretch or wear to any of the guides. EXCEPT the balancer chain tensioner was sticky.
Both chains & tensioners and all guides replaced. Used improved bolt, a la Dorman. NO sprockets replaced. Timing chain replacement necessitated R&R of phasers, both, insufficient room for chain under either, so TtY bolts replaced. Water pump left alone. Replaced the engine cover gasket, reasoning that a leak would be a minor disaster. It came with the shaft seal, so replaced that too. Reused the valve cover gasket.
Broken engine mount upgraded to OTTP. Front and read trans mount replaced perhaps unnecessarily; they were sound but stiff. Upper trans mount left alone.
Bought plugs since they had to come out. The old ones were correct and OK, some deposits, good color and exact same gap as the new ones. But I put in the new ones.
No more chain noise. No more annoying floppy engine when shifting. Now she’s parked until the road salt is gone.
Out of curiosity I had bought a separate GM timing guide in addition to the one in the Cloyes kit. The GM one had the Cloyes name molded in. The Cloyes one did not. The designs were not identical; the reinforcement gussets were arrange slightly differently. The one from the Cloyes kit was used.
Last edited by PulpFriction; 12-26-2020 at 04:51 PM.
10-06-2020, 09:37 AM
