60k observations/questions

[BIGSHOMIKE]

I am finishing up the second 60k on my ATX, 123k miles. The first was done at 59k by Ford.

I noticed the front bank timing chain has a tensioner with a block the chain slides on, while the rear bank chain has some slack in it, and has a metal housing over it to keep it from flying off. Weird, is this a 3.2 thing? I thought they both had tensioners.

Also, my front bank was nice and clean, but the rear has a brownish tint to it, no sludge but everything is "tarnished" looking. It's almost as if I was using different oil in the rear bank.

The shims are all shiny with no bad scrathes or wear and the cams look good, so I was happy about that. They are all in spec so far but near the high end so I will probably replace them anyway. I did a search and that seems to be the norm, plus I would like a little more lift.

I am actually enjoying this. I used to have all the work done at the dealer, but have spent so much time here I feel confident doing it myself. I like opening things up and being able to reconize what I'm looking at from reading all the posts here. My thanks to you all.

Mike

 

[svtC_and_SHO_Owner]

ill second that, with thet help of this forum ive done things to my car i thought i never would be able to, and it is fun (when it works). i laugh at people who pay mechanics to do little things to thier cars. just yesterday i had the whole top of the engine off, and got it back on by night and shes ruinning like a champ. these cars may break a lot but there not too bad to fix.

 

[sdpatt]

The tensioner on the rear bank timing chain is on the bottom span of the chain. It's there, you just have to look a little harder for it. The front valve train is lighter in color because it has a supply of fresh air coming in through the hose on the driver's side. This is the supply line to replenih the volume that is drawn through the PCV system.

What oil are you using? Some (Pennzoil, Quaker State) definitely leave more ash deposits than others (Castrol GTX, Valvoline).

 

[BIGSHOMIKE]

I used to use Castrol Syntec, but after being here I switched to GTX.

I also decided to flip the shims I wasn't changing over, because of mileage. They don't look like the worn ones in pics I dug up here, but the gap still changed in almost all cases. I see now why it was suggested to use a micrometer on the shims.

 

[sdpatt]

It's not so important what the thickness of the shim is as it is the thickness of the gap after teh shim is installed. The micrometer is a nice tool, but it is not needed for valve gap adjustments on the SHO engine.