Oldblue

She wanted me to make a list of the parts needed and thought I could have it fixed in a day or 2 , the crankshaft, in two pieces and the hole in the block from that rod , it’s not salvageable. I found a used LS 3 but it has more kilometres on it. And it’s only $1,500 less then a long block crate from GMPP new not rebuilt. New everything, bolt in! It’ll be at the shop Tuesday, by then the damaged engine will be out ant the engine bay cleaned and painted.
yep, she saved $8.00 per oil change, he poured in 5 quarts per oil change, her 5.3 takes 6!

donbrew

"Top Tier Gas" is a licensing scam. TOP TIER™ Gasoline Brands (toptiergas.com)

m_ridzon

Well, I found the problem. The plastic front guide shattered, and the upper guide was lost its plastic shim/overlay. So the chain was rattling on that upper guide, metal-on-metal. Ugh! This chain only has 10K miles on it and I have no idea why this happened. Nevertheless, I'll pull the oil pan to clean out the pieces and put a new chain kit in it. Fingers crossed!

Questions:

1. This latest incident tore up my OEM front guide bolt. I see a few options on RockAuto from Dorman and Melling, for the upgraded replacement guide bolt. Any issues with either of those options?
2. See the attached video. This balancer chain also has 10K miles on it. I know the tensioner has a ratcheting plunger and is primed with oil while running. But when not running, I cannot remember if it is supposed to have this slack in it. My gut tells me this is okay, and the slack will disappear when running. Can anyone confirm?

donbrew

1. probably identical parts
2. it is spring loaded, if it is slack it needs replacing. The tensioner has a pin that needs to be pulled after installation. The movie seems to show a working tensioner.

Oldblue

I installed a Melling in the BlackSwan.
The old adage applies, while you’re in there and your hands are oily, change both chains full kits!

Yours is a 2.0 SS do not use the crankshaft sprocket from the kit, the 2.0 uses a specific crankshaft sprocket.
get the Cloyes kit that doesn’t include camshaft or crankshaft sprockets 9-4201SX and balance shaft chain kit 9-402SX no sense wasting money on parts you don’t need or can’t use anyways.

PulpFriction

See my comment #16. I think some or all of these guides are made of inferior material. A glass-reinforced polyacetyl would be my first guess as appropriate but suspecting a nylon.

As reported previously, I have seen two versions of the front guide, with slightly different design, just in the gussets. One had “Cloyes” molded in, and was packaged in an official GM wrapper with the GM part number. The other one was labeled with the GM part number only and came in a Cloyes kit. Go figure.

Yes. Ish. I have never dissected the balance guide, only the timing guide, but pretty confident they work on the same principle.

As you may have already read elsewhere 🤫 yes, the slack should disappear. This is the way I understand it: The ratchet, as it were, indexes when it can, as parts wear, and can’t go back. This positively prevents excessive slack at startup so the chain can’t jump.

Oil pressure provides additional tension, so as it builds, any slight chain rattle should abate. This is elegant if imperfect because obviously more pressure would be called for at higher RPM to keep the chain stable.

So the slack at startup varies over time because it’s incremental. Slight audible chain rattle before oil pressure builds, would be normal, and it comes and goes with time as the ratchet steps out.

The timing chain works the same way, so you have two chains contributing to the changing serenade at startup.

I’m only alarmed by unusually loud chain rattle, or rattle that doesn’t go away in a few seconds once oil pressure has had a chance to build.

I’m not sure, but the movement in the balance tensioner in your vid looks like it might be excessive. I took one out that was obviously not working properly; it worked roughly and would “slip” with just finger pressure, completely unlike the new one.

It could be that it’s about to increment to the next notch. You could give the tension guide a little tug outward and see if it does.

m_ridzon

UPDATE: she's back together. No clue what caused the issue. I even sent the old timing set to Cloyes for inspection; they found nothing wrong. They had me bench test the cam sprockets and the VVT solenoids; no issues found. I pulled the oil pan and cleaned out all the plastic fragments from the guides.

It's up and running and sounds perfect. There were no issues putting it back together. Fingers crossed it stays together this time!

donbrew

BTW, both tensioners are ratcheting, the balance chain tensioner is spring loaded, the timing chain on 2006-2008 2.2L (non VVT) is spring loaded, the VVT engines have a hydraulic tensioner. The "new style" tensioner is the one that is hydraulic, there were a couple of versions. The chain should always have no visible slack, there is a tension spec, if you have the correct tools.

greg8453

Phasers have a way of locking up that if they have problems will allow for chain slop and slap on startup. Some use a pin and hole system and the the holes get ovaled out and or the pin gets messed up and they won't hold. If you need new phasers you'll find out when you start it cold.

m_ridzon

UPDATE AGAIN: 3K miles behind me and no issues. No rattle whatsoever. Engine purrs like a kitten. Fingers crossed it stays that way.