Need some help. I have a 04' Cavalier an up until just recently the car was running fine. Now there is obscene amount of vibrations, and there is a ticking sound coming from under the valve cover that goes away with normal engine temp, but will come back with a little push on the throttle. I pulled the cover off, and everything looks fine, and the timing chain seems pretty tight so I have no idea what it could be. Any help on this would be much appreciated. Also, I live in the Jacksonville, FL area so if any members who look at this are in the same area and would like to come take a look please feel free to PM me. Thanks for any help and have a wonderful day.

I have searched for answers, but have had no luck.

I have the exact same issue. Havent found it yet.

First thing to do is to replace the timing tensioner, and most will recomend to replace the entire timing set.

http://www.crateenginedepot.com/Ecotec-Timing-Chain-Tensioner-12608580-P10722C665.aspx

If the tensioner doesnt help look at replacing the entire timing set since it could be the front timing guide broken either at the bottom or top, or a broken bolt. I checked mine and didnt find anything broken but im going to change it for piece of mind.

http://www.crateenginedepot.com/LSJ-L61-Timing-Chain-Base-Set-CEDLSJBTC--P24040C665.aspx

After that , and next on my list in the lifters. One could not be pumping up fully.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edited Saturday, July 13, 2013 10:44 AM

Thanks Philly. You know there are other places that sell the entire set for a lot cheaper than almost $300 right? Not trying to be a smart ass, but that's hella expensive. Thanks for the help though man. I'm gonna keep that in mind, but also continue to do more research. Appreciate it.

These are Gm parts though with the updated and revised parts. The tensioner is a gm only part for sure

Check your lash adjusters. They can go bad and collapse.

According to yonder link.

^^Exactly why I am replacing mine with the updated LNF style

Well the noise is coming from the timing chain side of my engine on the top engine not underneath. I found a timing chain tensioner from AutoZone for 30 bucks, so gonna pick that up, and then change that out, see if that fixes the problem, but if not I know what I'm gonna look at next.

Do not get the autozone tensioner!!!!

Get the one I linked you to. It is the correct replacement and won't blow apart like the normal ones.

Hmmm... The Autozone and Crateenginedepot.com tensioners look the same. So what pray tell is the difference, besides the fact that there is a high possibility that the one from Autozone might fail sooner than the one from crate engine?

From what I've been told gm is the only supplier of the new style tensioner.

Get the one from autozone, see if the end pulls out. If it does it's not the same.

The aftermarket and old style ones the plunger and come apart, the new gm one is held together with a circlip.

For the love of god all GM parts when it comes to timing equipment. I don't care if its 50 dollars at autozone and 300 for the CED GM parts, it's still worth it.



"In Oldskool we trust"

^Exactly.

The thing is GM updates and revises parts. Aftermarket companies dont.

I looked at the pic on Autozone. They look similar but I can tell its the old style that is not held together. Get the crate engine depot version and get the correct part.

Philly D wrote:^^Exactly why I am replacing mine with the updated LNF style

Curious about this. I've seen some LNF ones break too. Unless there's a second revision to the LNF ones?

The LNF ones can break but wont send the parts into your motor.

Up until 2009(iirc) the plunger was just held there by the timing chain guide holding against it. As the guides and chain wore out it would send the plunger and parts into the motor.

The new style has a circlip holding the assembly all together so that even if it fails it doesn't fire everything into the motor. It also had some revisions to oiling I believe with tighter tolerances to hold better pressure.

Well I went and bought the one from Autozone. Mind you, I did it before I read your post saying not too. After reading what you said, I looked at it, and it is held together with a retainer clip. Which the clip looks like this: http://t2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQ3qLAXdMCOz8qL9ZqFaMYPVyyfdXYkhduzAPfk8n4w0vV I'm pretty sure this is the clip that you were talking about. The part is made by Duralast, which I know is a Autozone generic brand.

That link didn't work, but the clip is U-shaped, and has two holes on the ends of the legs.

Well thats good. They must have revised the part because up until recently they were still a 2 part tensioner.

Id still like to see a pic of it though.

Put it in and lets see if it fixes things!

I'd still buy the GM part lol. I will not ever mess with aftermarket timing parts. period.



"In Oldskool we trust"

Here are those pics that you wanted of the new timing tensioner. Sorry that I'm just now posting them up, but here ya go.

Looks fairly similar to GM's unit.

Put it in!

I will. I just have to find a day where I have nothing else to do but mess with my car. I say that only because reading on this job, it looks like its about a full day job, cause I have to take off the cover and all that crap, and then remove the old one, and then install the new. So I might just do it Saturday, but not totally sure yet. Unless, you might know something I don't, like say, a shortcut?

Its maybe an hour job if you do it the "long" way.

Most guys on CSS.Net say to just carefully take out the old one and put the new one in and start it up. Most make it out ok....some skip timing and ruin the head.

Im a little more careful and took the valve cover off and held the guide while I screwed the old one out and got the new one in so it didnt slip.

But still maybe a hour job at most. Its really just pulling the valvecover.

Torque it to 55ft/lb

So I installed the new one, found out what was possibly making the clicking sound, and now have a non clicking engine that sounds great. Still have a lot of vibration though. So enough of the blabbing and on with the pictures:

This is part of the timing chain guide that broke off, and was just tumbling around with the chain. Don't really know how it broke or why it broke for that matter...

Out with the old, and already put in the new. This thing is a bad design from the get go...


So there you have it folks. Job complete, and it took maybe a total of about 45 mins, when I was actually working on the tensioner itself, and not messing around with other stuff.
Philly, I did exactly what you did, and took the valve cover off, and had a flashlight pointing down in the hole so I could see what I was doing. Installed the new one without doing it the "long" way, and to tell you the truth it wasn't all that hard, started my car, let it run a little bit, and then took it out around the block. Came back, and had my wife start the car up just to see if there were any start up clicks, but everything was good. So a good news story, my car is just fine again. Oh, and the guide? I'll replace that sometime later on. Doesn't appear to be too much of a problem right now, and like that old saying goes "if it ain't broke, don't fix it."

Picture of the object in case you can't see it to well.