Wife got a 98 XK8 last year,(100,000+) She came in and told me a Cat followed her home after work,
car ran Great all year and a blast to drive,
After reading all the post about the tensioners for that year, I decieded to take the cam cover off for a quick peek.
Found it had plastics tensioners in it,
Got all of my parts from motorcar, and got the tensioners in tonight,
My question is LH side went great
The RH side, got it all together, pulled the pin out of the tensioner, chain became tight just like the LH side, When I pulled the cam lock down tool off the chain became slack.
Thought maybe I installed the cam gear in the wrong way, yanked everything apart to check, everything was right. Went to pull the lock down tool, the chain became slack.
Is the cam turning just alittle when I remove the tool, causing the chain to become slack?, looks like the tensioners are spring loaded and has oil pressure to them . will the slack come out after it starts.
I hope

thanks

 

Yes it is OK. The same thing happened to me and I posted the same question. The valve springs turn the cam a little bit when the locking tool is removed. No problems.

 

WHEW!!
Thanks Gordo
I read the JTIS and interpereted it by saying to rotate the cam gear counterclockwise while torquing the cam gear down , was not sure what the driven side of the gear was, I was hoping it was the front of the gear. Can you make that clear for me?
Just how much slack did you have in chain?

 

IFAIK the easiest way to describe the 'driven side' is always the side opposite the tensioners.

On the A-bank (Passenger side), after I removed the cam indexing tool, the exhaust cam rotated a little (probably due to valve spring pressure) and the secondary chain gets a little slack. It was tight when the cams were locked down.

If engine is rotated, the chain will tighten; but, if it is rotated further, more slack will appear, so it appears the valve is riding up and over the cam lobe at this point. The B-bank (Drivers side) remains tight throughout engine rotation. I thought the chain had stretched, however, when replaced with a new chain, the same amount of slack appear. I do not have a scale to measure the amount of slack, but like you, it appeared to be too much.

1. The cam index tool was locked down tight on cam flats
2. The crank was pegged in the correct hole.
3. All chains were pulled tight, counterclockwise, on driven side.
4. The exhaust cam socket was secured w/ Allen securing bolt, and
5. VVT intake cam socket secured w/ same

Then when I remove cam index tool, the cams moved, and the secondary chain becomes loose. I thought the new metal tensioner take up this slack. However, once started, the slack is taken up, and the engine ran fine.

 

I did the jod without cam locking tools, ie lifted the cam up out of the bearings. The chain was slightly loose after installing new tensioners. No problems or rattling sounds in operation though.