Quote:
Originally Posted by Sieg
Well......it's been over an hour and a half.  |
When the oil pan was removed to check the rod bearings and main bearings... we found a surprise. The parts shown in the picture were laying in the bottom of the oil pan!
Here is a picture showing where the parts came from. From the research I have done... this is the new design timing chain "tensioner" that is used on the LS3 engines.
You can see where the plastic cracked and the part failed.
This is a picture of an older design timing chain "damper" that was used on the LS2 engines.
Since the LS3 "tensioner" failed I did some internet research and apparently I am not alone in having a failure with the new LS3 "tensioner". I discussed this problem with the engine builder and he said most of the LS builds he has done used the LS2 style "damper". My engine was one of the first to use the new LS3 design "tensioner".
We have come to the conclusion that since my engine has a larger cam than a stock engine this may have contributed to the failure. With the larger lift cam this may have caused excessive stress on the tensioner.
A.C. installed the LS2 damper rather than the LS3 tensioner for the rebuild. He also installed a new timing chain. No telling how long the engine had run with no tensioner.
From what I have found out... The LS2 damper is the way to go if you run a larger cam and higher RPM. The LS2 damper a very simple design with no moving parts.
I don't want to cause a panic that all engines with LS3 "tensioners" will fail... I just wanted to share what happened to me. I'm glad that my timing chain did not break. I feel very fortunate that I pulled the engine and discovered this problem early on. The good news is that the LS2 damper bolted right in using the same hole pattern as the LS3 tensioner.