I'm beginning to wonder. After driving the car evenings and weekends for a couple of weeks (no tag yet, so I was trying to avoid the attention of our local law enforcement), I was finally down to one monitor the needed to reset (catalyst monitor), with no pending codes. Time to go to the emission testing center for a retest! As I pulled out of the garage, I heard a little more racket under the hood than usual. It sounded like noisy hydraulic lifters.

Fearing it was the timing chain tensioners, I decided to bite the bullet and pull the valve covers (again). Good thing I did. I lined up the cams on the right bank and they look pretty good. But the left bank......

Needless to say, I hit the internet and ordered a chain/tensioner kit. That was too close for comfort.

Yeah, I guess you are right, they hate owners who do not do the obvious ... tensioners, alloy thermostat tower, thermostat, valley hoses .

No previous symptoms, and the last time I checked (about one month ago, details in another thread) tensioners looked good and cam lobes were in alignment. With 180k miles on the car, I can't believe the tensioners haven't been changed before. Doubtful they would last that long. All other items listed above have been replaced by a previous owner.

Unfortunately, for some of these items it is not a matter of checking, but a matter of just replacing, the consequences are just too way big.

Seems your car actually loves you, you have been extremely lucky the chain skipped just one teeth.
Good luck in replacing the stuff.

True, could have been worse, I was fortunate.