gixxer

I replaced the head on my 91 22re....now the truck sounds a lot loader then it did before, sounds like a diesel now. I pulled the valve cover off and manually spin the crank over by hand....I see the timing chain has tension , then it looses tension, then it gets tension, and looses it again. The chain tensioner goes in and out, every time I spin the crank over by hand. Is the tensioner supposed to do this ? When it pops back out, it smackes against the chain, and that is what is making it sound like a diesel engine when running. I put in new gears/chain/metal guides/ and chain tensioner about 1 year ago, so I don't think the guides are bad..they look good looking down at them

Should the chain tensioner be going in and out, when spinning the engine over by hand ? Or is this tensioner broken now ?

millball

It is very unlikely that the tensioner moving in and out and smaking the chain is what is making your noise.

Although you may see this phenom while turning the engine by hand, conditions are much different when the engine is running at speed and there is constant oil pressure behind the tensioner piston.

I very much doubt that the tensioner can rapidly go in and out while the engine is running.

Did you use inferior Chinese slave-labor chain and sprockets??

Sounds like your chain might have some frozen links.

gixxer

I used an Engine Builders timing chain kit, and head. I don't think its the timing chain, all the links move freely..I don't think its the tensioner also.....

It gets worse as the engine warms up......

If the engine is cold and I spin it around by hand, I could hear what sounds like air leaking back into the block. Probably worn rings.....I am in the process now of a leak down test, and a compression test.....engine runs fine....just sounds like a diesel or sewing machine now...it never sounded this loud before the new head.....engine has 310,000 of it.

gixxer

Compression test has 170 psi in each cylinder

millball

Check the valve lash and carefully examine the rocker arms and shafts.

Were they new with the new head??

gixxer

The leakdown was the same on all 4 cylinders when each piston was at TDC. About 35-40% leakdown, gauge showed it was low leakdown.

I checked the valve lash again.....and it was .012 on exhaust, and .008 on intake.

I just changed them to .011 on exhaust when COLD, and .007 on intake when COLD...I guess I will try that out to see if it quites down.

The rocker arms seem fine, no abnormal wear, and the shafts are also clean, no side to side movement on the rocket shafts.

old87yota

Is both the engine and ignition timing correct?

Flash319

You may have damaged the tensioner when you put everything together. They are not very robust. I have used engblder set 6 times and had one bad tensioner. He is good and replaced it for me but i still had to go back in.....

make sure you have the short bolt in the cover hole over the tensioner.

gixxer

It looks correct and the engine runs fine...just sounds like a diesel now.

Cylinder one is at TDC...rotor is pointing to # 1, and the tooth on the distributor that has the notch on it, it just about touching the other gear like it should. I set the timing at 5' when retarding the timing with the jumper clip....I tried to advance to timing, and the engine still sounded the same.

I made as video of the engine running, but there is alot of background noise, you might be able to hear the knock.

gixxer

I have all the bolts back in the correct spots...I had trouble getting the chain back on when I was putting it back together...I used a long rod to push the tensioner back in, so I could lift the chain onto the top gear. When spinning the engine over by hand, it almost looks like and sounds like it skips a gear tooth, but its not.....I see the tensioner going in and out when spinning counter clock wise, but if I spin the engine clock wise the tenioner comes out and stays out most of the while, but every so often it goes back it.. it looks like a popping noise thru the valve cover when the engine is running.


I drove the truck over 500 miles like this so far with this diesel sounding noise, and nothing has happened yet.....oil is clean...no metallic particles in the oil

gixxer

This is the noise I recorded...its not as loud as in this sound file....but it does sound like a diesel at idle...as you rev the engine up, it does quite down alot...but the noise is still there...I will try to record again tomorrow with a better sound file.

http://www.megafileupload.com/fa8p/My_truck_noise.wma