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Analysis into the health of a M42

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    Analysis into the health of a M42

    Looking to do a 6k mile road trip with my M42, that in the past has worked flawlessly and I've put over 100k on the engine in my 5 year ownership. I'm looking to see what are the best ways I can look into the health of the motor without actually opening it up. I know simple things like cylinder psi test, but are there ways to look into the life of the timing components? I remember seeing a tiny piece of a timing component when I changed out my oil pan probably 10k ago, but no additional pieces have shown up during oil changes. I get chain rattle on start up for about 2-4 seconds but it goes away, tensioner is overdue I believe.

    Anything else?
    Originally posted by TSI
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    #2
    When you get that chain rattle, its slapping against the guides, eventually it will start breaking them. That piece you found in the oil was probably a piece of a guide. I would pop the VC and front cover off to take a look.
    Originally posted by wholepailofwater
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      #3
      Yikes if you have a small piece of a timing component in the bottom of the oil pan, I would proceed with caution. You could potentially have a disintegrated timing chain guide in time.

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        #4
        Dang, not the news I was looking to hear. I suppose its too late to slap on a new chain tensioner and hope the noise goes away since I saw a timing guide piece in my oil pan. From my understanding, if I pull the valve cover and inspect that the side guides and the upper guide is good, then I am relatively good and I should just replace the tensioner, no? The lower guide appears to be non-essential, and might be the piece that was in my oil pan. The engine has been taken care of very well with regular maintenance so I would be a little surprised if at 130k miles it would show very worn timing pieces.
        Last edited by lolcantturn; 02-16-2017, 01:09 PM.
        Originally posted by TSI
        ♫ Rust flecks are falling on my head...♫
        OEM+

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          #5
          I don't think that you can fully assess the health of the guides with just the valve cover removed. Was the piece you found made of black plastic, or did it look like a steel piece of a chain roller?

          The lower guide is mostly important when revving the engine up high as it can help prevent chain whip from causing a jumped tooth, but it is still an important piece. It is often the one that loses pieces. A new tensioner will not help with broken guides. The right way to deal with it is to open up the timing case, which is a pain in the ass, but there are no shortcuts around this. The timing chain system in the M42 is its main weakness IMO, and it has been the death of many M42's.

          My gut feeling is that you will be fine if you put 6000 relatively gentle highway miles on the car, as long as it is not making ANY timing related noises. And yeah, I would change the tensioner piston just for good measure since it is cheap and easy.

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            #6
            Thank you, I'll throw in a new tensioner this weekend and post a video of my engine idling. No timing related noises once the initial cold start chain slap goes away, but hopefully a new tensioner will fix that.
            Originally posted by TSI
            ♫ Rust flecks are falling on my head...♫
            OEM+

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