For once I actually get to start a thread that has a happy ending

Last sunday I replaced the timing chains, tensioners and water pump - good thing since the old tensioner rails were pretty cracked. It took a while, but everything came apart and went back together pretty smoothly. The only sticking point we had was getting the dampener off - we were about 30 seconds away from cutting it off and ordering a new one before one last try finally budged it loose.

One thing that helped me was I removed the radiator completely (be sure to plug the transmission lines) and I unbolted the AC condenser and dryer and carefully bent the lines back so the condenser was sitting back towards the engine (without disconnecting any lines). This not only have me a lot more room to work and get at the dampener, but it also moves the radiator out of harm's way.

I also adjusted the throttle cable, as per one of the posts on this forum. Holy crap, it drives like a new car now! Before there was so much play that you could push the pedal down 1/3 of the way before engaging the throttle. Now it downshifts where it should and I even get slightly better mileage too. And it was super easy (and cheap!) to do.

I still have a little bit of a rough idle, and the VVT solenoids are making noise intermittently (I'm guessing), but it's due for an oil change and I've heard to put 10W-30 in it and that might help with that.

 

Nice one and a positive post, thanks for sharing

Anything else to add, please let us know!

 

. . . and welcome and thanks for a great introduction to the forum.

 

Well done, feels good doesn't it?