Timing chain and oil pump?

[Roadsterd]

To make this quick... I picked up a car, was told that it needed the timing chain replaced. The car still started up, but sounded like a tractor. Trying to decide whether to fix the motor or buy a new one.

The cam sprockets and the idler sprocket look brand new, the crank has very light wear. It almost looks like the timing chain has been recently replaced. When I bolted on the cam locking tool the cams were slightly out of alignment (maybe a few degrees).





When I pulled the lower pan, 4 bolts from the upper pan had fallen into the lower and wedged themselves in between the bottom of the pickup and the pan. There are also some metal shavings in the lower pan but I can't seem to find where they came from.





The shiny markings on the pickup are where the bolts were wedged in. You can actually see the threads of the bolts pressed into the metal but the picture didn't come out well.


My guess: The fallen bolts were impeding the flow of oil and it wasn't getting enough pressure to the tensioner. The chain stretched from the slack and cause the cams to go slightly out of alignment. = M42 that sounds like a tracer. Sound plausible?

[Jak]

Sounds plausible to me. Those sprockets look healthy to me. How did the guides look? Is the tensioner new?

[Roadsterd]

I replaced the tensioner first to see if the sound went away. All the timing parts look pretty much new. After seeing the deep gouges in guides people have posted I expected mine to look like if they were even still intact, but they guides look brand new. RTV and locktite it is, hopefully the upper pan bolts will stay in this time.