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.

IMG-20210511-183734 hosted at ImgBB

Image IMG-20210511-183734 hosted in ImgBB

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)

 

[Xlrick1969]

You don't need to turn the motor over more than twice. With the cams locked down with the alignment jig, the left side phaser should be at 1 o'clock. The right-side phase should be at 11 o'clock and the crank timing mark dimple should be at 4 o'clock. Install the new chain and tensioner. Then turn the crank over twice from the 4 o'clock position and stop at second time you reach the 4 o'clock position for the crank. It's much easier to do when all the spark plugs are removed. Keep in mind that even though your crank mark has come back to the 4 o'clock position, the colored timing chain links WILL NOT line up with the timing marks on any of the sprockets. This is normal. Just rotate the crank two revolutions to make sure nothing is hitting.

 

[Xlrick1969]

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.

IMG-20210511-183734 hosted at ImgBB

Image IMG-20210511-183734 hosted in ImgBB

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)

You do not have to rotate the crank many times. You only need to turn it over two revolutions AFTER you have lined up all the timing marks. With the cam holder fixtures in place on both sides of motor the right (firewall side) dimple on the phaser sprocket should be at 11 O'clock. The left (or frontmost-radiator side phaser dimple should be at 1 O'clock. The crankshaft sprocket dimple should be at 4 o'clock and in between the two colored links. The other two single colored links on the chain should be at 11 o'clock and 1 o'clock respectively. In this state the engine is timed correctly. Turn the crank over two times to ensure nothing is hitting. You don't need more than 2 complete revolutions of the crank. It's important to note that THE TIMING MARKS WILL NOT line up after turning the crank. This does not matter and is normal on DOHC engines. The point is before you started to rotate the crank, all of the timing marks were in the correct position. removing the spark plugs can make the rotations easier. It could take 500 revolutions for the timing marks to line up again but doing so is totally futile and unnecessary.