bluepony4.6

Quick Update:

I took off the front cover to determine if I placed the metal plates behind the tensioners (between the tensioner and the block) and I had not. I attached a couple of pictures of the tensioner in question (small nail underneath) and another tensioner I had lying around. You can see that the inner fire tensioner looks pretty much the same but has a larger area for oil. The next picture shows the inner fire tensioner with the metal plate that I failed to install. It has a small hole in it. I wonder if not installing the plates has caused any issues. I checked out the guides and all are still in good shape.

001mustang

I wonder if chain suffered any damage.
I would look at ford exploded diagram at dealership to verify you don't forget a washer, etc.

bluepony4.6

I will look at the chain but everything seemed tight. However I'm going to rotate the crank for a few revolutions to see if the chain was stretched.

bluepony4.6

I checked the chains and they are fine. However, the left tensioner was somewhat weak compared to the right. The left chain wasn't as tight as the right chain. I changed out the tensioners and turned the crank 52 times to ensure no PTV and checked the chains which were both nice and tight. I will changed out the lash adjusters in the next couple of days.

I remember someone talking about the factory cam gears can be off and I believe them (I think it was nickmckinney). I believe the left cam gear is off around 5 degrees.

More to follow.

bluepony4.6

New and hopefully final update. I replaced the lash adjusters, the cam sprockets, added the plates to the timing chain tensioners and took off the underdrive pulleys. I fired it up last night and no noise. I fired it up again this morning to verify and still no noise. Hopefully this madness is over. Thanks all for your replies and input.

001mustang

Hope those gremlins have fled for good.

bluepony4.6

Me too. It was the only thing keeping me from installing my S/C.