Cam Tensioner Failure
 

hey guys

I guess i had the cam tensioner failure. I was driving to work the other day and it stalled out on me. Started doing some checks this weekend and I found i had no compression. Pulled the valve cover to take a peak at the valves and found a bunch of the intake rollers smashed. Pulled the timing cover and found one of the guides in a ton of pieces and the bolt holding it in broken off. Pulled the heads off today to get the valves replaced. All the intake valves are bent. Also my exhaust manifold has a crack in the split. Hopefully i can get that welded up this week too.

Also pulling the Oil pan to see if I can find all the chunks of the rollers.



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wow

Man that sucks. What year are you and how many miles?

Does anyone know when they started putting the upgraded timing components in?

Yeah I would like to know too? bc I had mine in the shop over the summer and was having lifter noise! The guy said there was black stuff in my lifters and the screens on the cam shaft act both exh and Intake!. Got me kinda worried now! ticking time bomb.:(

Its an 06 with 194,000km on it.

damn that sucks dude, I had my Timing Chain tensioner go out on my LSJ at around 80k miles. I hit a bad bump and it shut the car off, came back later to rattling under the hood. Towed it to a chevy dealer and they replaced it for me.

Later half of 06, IIRC.
Try some seafoam for those lifters. Cleaned up mine 1k miles ago. 159k almost 160k.

From the marks on the engine where the timing chain guide was mounted, I am guessing you had a ticking noise and the guide bolt was broken for a while. Sorry for your loss.

The OEM exhaust manifolds crack over time. May be cheaper to pick up a used one locally from an Ontario Cobalt club member, than welding it up which is problematical...

It had been making noise for a bit. The belt tensioner where it mounts to the block had worn the bushing out on the tensioner. Id assumed its looseness was making the noise. Id blame this one on inattentive owner. Gm wants some insane bucks for valves. Any suggestions on websites to find ones a tad cheaper.

thats really easy to answer, buy a complete head they are relatively cheap. I have three LSJ heads here, all are complete with cams and all you need, 400 + shipping. One is like new, 500cheers.

Damn i just grabbed one for the same price an hour ago. I thought same thing just get a complete head. Hopefully my parts all arrive by weekend. This walking to work is lame.

new tensioner kit from ced is complete and around 200+ dollars; new guide bolts, loctite + 89 inch lbs

Thanks for the info!

I knew there were a couple issues with the timing components in these motors. Glad to get some good info. Will be replacing the parts in my 05 soon so this doesn't happen to me.

My 07 L61 did the same in my driveway and is the reason why I have a built and ported motor.

A failure this bad is mostly my fault. It didn't just start making some noise a week ago. However a wallet lesson on lazyness should motivate me to take better care of this thing in the future.

Got my used head in today. Gonna check it out tonite. Most parts should here this week. Im told head gasket wont arrive till monday or thursday next week. Boo-urns.

was the bolt in the head for the black chain guide missing or in place

the guide was all in pieces more or less in the bottom. I don't recall a bolt sticking out with nothing attached to it. I'll probably pull the pan later this week and see if i can find any pieces that landed down there.

The pan lol! Thats where my guide fragment and all the other pieces were...fortunately, I pulled the motor before it let go. Based on the noises, I did blame the Harrop initially lol. The Harrop was fine....

the reason I ask is I have pulled several 06 sc cars apart and that bolt was either loose or missing and the bottom bolt dam near sheard in two and I believe that is why the black guide gives out is due to the bolt in the head

^^^this. plus lotsa revs.

Well i pulled the old head out of the trunk to take a look. That one is broken off as well. Now that would have been a crappy place to drill a bolt out of.

Lol my co-worker told me after i found out how bad i broke it. "Never fall in love with a race horse. They'll just break your heart". Damn back in the day my old daytona with the 2.2 u could have a blown head gasket, no coolent, like no oil and drive on for ages. You'd only did the head gasket cause it was winter and it was annoying the heat coming and going. Mind you it was also like 87hp.

welcome to the broken guide/tensioner club :thumb:

luckily mine never did any serious damage

I need to replace mine.............. Ahhhhhhhh

What do your pistons look like? My pistons bent all of the intake valves and had marks on them.