Issues after 3.5 timing chain install, advice needed

[jski67]

Hi all,

My wife's 2016 3.5 XLT developed a leaky water pump so I decided to tackle the repair myself. I bought the Cloyes kit and followed the shop manual plus the Cloyes video and thought I installed everything ok...however, upon startup the car ran rough and wanted to stall. There was also a some definite new tapping/valvetrain noise. I found a few harness plugs I missed but that didn't fix the issue, so I decided to pull the cover back off.

After watching a few more videos, I'm pretty sure I had slack in the chain when I installed the main tensioner and I'm thinking I skipped a tooth on startup.

1. It's my understanding that I can't easily rotate the engine to line up the timing marks. Do I just remove the chain and rotate the cams/crank back where they're supposed to be and reinstall the chain from there? Don't want to bend any valves.

2. I used all the parts from the Cloyes kit, but after a bit more research is seems that OEM tensioners are preferred...maybe that caused the problem? I checked the new cam tensioners once I pulled the front cover back off and they're popped up and appear to be ok. I think I'm going to at least grab an OEM tensioner for the main chain.

I'd appreciate any thoughts or advice to what I might have missed. At least it was much quicker tearing it apart the second time, lol.

 

[Flashflood]

Rotate the motor by hand until your at TDC. Always Rotate the engine forward never backwards. Just some useful information! When doing the chain how much slack did it have?

 

[peterk9]

Welcome to the Forum jski67.

Peter

 

[jski67]

Thanks guys.

It didn't seem like there was much slack in the new chain...it was difficult getting the main tensioner installed and it didn't really pop out much when I released the pin.

 

[mguy13sport]

There are three timing indicators on the primary chain. The double chain mark should be centered on the bottom crank key. The other two marks should line up with the punchout on each cam phaser. Additionally, the secondary chains should line up with the etch marks on each cylinder head.

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ibb.co

Its possible you need to rotate the engine many many times to get everything in sync and back to center

Also there should be no slack at all in the chain. Before u put it back together this time make sure you turn the engine by hand many times and test your timing marks. Like I said it takes several rotations to get back to center. Obviously if you feel resistance something isn't right...

You can rotate each cam with a 22mm wrench if necessary but be careful and don't let the cam over rotate (hold on tight)