I took it apart and reassembled it about 5 times, but finally, all chains line up on their marks, and the chain rides in the middle of all the guides, and everything is torqued to spec. New: Cloyes cam sprockets & bolts, balance shaft sprockets, 2 chains, 6 guides & 2 bolts, Dorman bolt, 2 tensioners, and an oiler. The old cam chain was the same length as the new cam chain... so I don't think there was 140K miles on this chain. The former owner probably changed it once. I did a 175K ecotec LAF engine a few weeks ago, and that chain was a full link longer than the new chain.
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Tricks I learned:
- used vice grips to hold the intake camshaft steady, and a 24mm wrench to move the exhaust cam, so I can align the sprockets on the cams.
- intake cam sprocket gets the odd colored (yellow) chain link. The other exhaust and crank sprockets get black links.
- insert the big aluminum chain guide down from above before installing the exhaust sprocket, but after the intake sprocket, chain, and crank sprocket. The right chain guide can be done after the sprockets are all on their marks.
- put a 12mm socket inside my 32mm deep socket, then put that in the impact gun, with the cam chain tensioner (already activated). Put on about 40lbs pressure to compress the spring in the tensioner, and lightly pull the trigger on the impact, until the threads catch, and pull the tensioner in. Torque to 55 foot pounds. I never liked activating the tensioner after installing, as I broke one once, because I can't tell if it was activated.
- there is a lot of tension on the cam chain, I can't get any slack with thumb pressure, but the chain is centered on the guides, and there was some slack before putting on the tensioner.
not only with the space, but Lonny can hand deliver parts to you too.
