I am posting to get opinions on whether anyone has a preference or experience with the timing chain tensioner on a 2.4?

About a year ago, I replaced my timing chain and tensioner as I was doing a water pump replacement. At that time, my 98 Sunfire had the 2-piece tensioner design and I replaced it with the 1-piece assembly. Now, about a year later, the 1-piece tensioner that I put in has failed and the engine jumped time and bent all 8 intake valves.

I'm wondering if anyone has any experience with the quality (pros/cons) of either of the two options.

I'm thinking I want to go back to the 2-piece design, but I have a small dilemma. When I switched to the 1-piece assembly, I threw away the housing bolt with the pin that the shoe attaches to for the 2-piece design. The GM service manuals do not even show the 2-piece design (they show the 1-piece assembly), so the dealerships don't even see this bolt/pin in their system for me to order. Does anyone have a spare engine laying around with this bolt/pin that they would be willing to remove and sell to me?

Should I just put another 1-piece tensioner assembly back in and hope this one doesn't fail?

Oh, and by the way, none of the parts stores (i.e. AutoZone, Napa, Advance Auto, etc) even list the 1-piece assembly as being an option for a 98 Sunfire 2.4. The only way I was able to get one is by giving the parts store the GM part number stamped on the assembly. They looked up the part number and had it in stock, but their systems did not show it as being used on my Sunfire. That leads me to believe that others might have been having the same problem as I did.

I would really like to get my hands on that tensioner shoe bolt/pin and switch back to the 2-piece design!

From my experience (which includes a complete 2.4 motor rebuild, 4 cam swaps, 1 head removal for bad head gasket) I have always used the 1 piece one. I love that one and hate the 2 piece. The 2 piece is GM factory. The 1 piece seems to be auto part store replacement, but you can get the 2 piece at some stores. Someone else might chime in and GM shows the 1 piece for certain years and 2 piece for other years. I have worked on many different years and every stock 2.4 I have seen had a 2 piece. I have switched them to 1 piece. I perfer it. The 2 piece also requires oil pressure support, 1 piece does not.



FU Tuning

Thanks for your input, John. The only reason I'm questioning this is because I put in the 1-piece assembly about a year ago and it just recently failed and ultimately threw off the timing and damaged my valves. I'm hesitant to put another one in only to have it fail again and require another valve replacement a year from now. This valve replacement is proving to be a pretty costly job.

My 97 Sunfire had the 2 piece in it. I almost opted for the 1 piece. I replaced it along with the chain and guides when I did my water pump. That stupid thing did not even last 20 miles. Had to tear it apart and replace it. All has been fine, only got about 1500 miles on it before putting it away for the winter.

I have a 97 donor engine for my rebuild. I could pull the timing cover to see what it has.

Ditchen... You saying that the 1-piece failed on you too and you went back to the 2-piece design?

My head should be done this week and I plan on putting everything back together this weekend, so I'm probably not going to have any other choice but to use the 1-piece since I don't have the bolt/pin for the 2-piece shoe.

Mine had a 2 piece, and I was going to put a 1 piece in it, but all I could get was a 2 piece. Which failed. The way it failed was like it was binding and made the chain just loose enough to hear the noise. I was lucky.

Now the 97 service manual I have only shows the 1 piece, which was the reason I wanted to get the 1 piece but none in stock to be had.

I know this post is just a little old but...

I am going back to the 1 piece design in my 99 z24. It currently has the 2 piece.

Bradford, I will have that pin/bolt that you were looking for... If you still needed it, I could tighten you up! Lemme know.

Thanks for the offer, RedDevil, but I'm DONE working on this car (hopefully for a while)! I ended up using another 1-piece tensioner. After reading further, I found that I am probably better off with the 1-piece anyway. I'm still puzzled as to why my engine jumped time in the first place.

In case you're interested, the GM part number for the 1-piece tensioner is 24573179. I went to a bunch of parts stores trying to find this thing and none of them listed this as an option for my 98' Sunfire. Once I found the part number, I found that almost ALL the parts stores had it in stock. I think it may show up for 1996 and earlier.

Don't throw away that housing bolt with the pin on it!!! I could not find one ANYWHERE! Someone might need one some day!

Thanks again!
Brad

No worries man. I figured it was prob too late, but I gave it a shot!

I have the one piece unit on my 97 & I am going to install the same style tensioner on my 99.

It looks like late 97 and newer use the 2 piece tensioner and 96 & some early 97's use the 1 piece. I couldn't really see the 2 piece design working very well when I reinstalled everything & sure enough, I think the timing jumped.

I am picking up a one piece from Napa tomorrow morning, I found it doing a search for a 96 Cavalier. When I search for 99 Cav, the tensioner comes up w/ different part numbers & the seperate shoe for it.

Hang on to that part number man. I couldn't find it anywhere !!!
I was going to crack the cover on my 97 just to get the part number!