Then another owner chimed in at some point (sorry I didn't make note of who it was ) of his experience: "It's extremely difficult to change the chain with the cams in their normal place, I have tried and failed! After gaining access to the cams remove the timing adjustment pins from the cam sprocket, and loosen the bolts that secure the sprockets to the cam so they can turn on the cams. Wind off the tensioner to give some slack in the chain. Loosen all the cam bearing nuts to let the valves remain more or less in their seats, then connect the new chain to the old one. I think it is better to do this on the tensioner side, then draw the chain over all four cam sprockets by winding the engine over from the bottom pulley on the crank.

 This is a two people job, get someone under the car turning the engine in it's normal running direction, and someone feeding the chain in, and pulling the old one out on top.

 You could just pull the cams out completely, but I found they helped to support the chain as it is wound in if they are still there. It was a couple of years ago I did this and I cannot remember if I had to remove all the bearing caps to allow the engine to turn without valve/piston contact, or if it was enough just to loosen them and let the cams rise.

 While you are inside the cam covers you can reset the valve clearances, and obviously get the valve timing spot on. I would get the chain tension roughly right static, and finally adjust to optimum with the engine warm and running. 

This is a fairly long job as you have to remove a lot of plumbing and parts to get at the cams, but you can be sure of getting there in the end!"
Out of curiosity, did you find a way to inspect the surfaces of the tensioner or the chain followers? If so can you comment as to the condition of the surfaces at the point you replaced the chain? That has to be a completed project to be proud of!
Good idea Ken but, are you getting a rattling on the chain ? if not we might be dismantling your car for little reason! Regards Alastair
Hi Dave No stretch at all @ 30 000miles on the old chain so couldn't be that. No damage to chain or gear though there is lateral movement in the whole setup possibly you could get this wandering lateral movement when loosening tensioner with the engine running! Regards Alastair
Bruce you got it and you remembered right you can just ease the cam no need to remove all the caps, however on the timing getting the chain roughly right will not work as the settling or further tension/loosening will throw the timing out so you need to set perfect tension.
Dave condition of pads at 30 000 miles in my instance was acceptable in Kens case at double the mileage there could be wear.
Alastair, Did you find the cause of the axial run out on the intermediate gear? Looking at the exploded view of the chain system in the parts book I noticed a part (#28 on the illustration) that is called a ferrule. Is it an adjustable spacer on the intermediate shaft? The bearings on both ends of the shaft appear to single row ball bearings. They are not designed to accept high thrust loading and as such would need to minimize the backlash to control gear "walk" from thrust loading. In your case it appears that there was enough gear walk to cause the timing chain to contact the adjacent face of the intermediate gear. Did you find any abnormal wear to the ball bearings on the intermediate shaft in your engine? If so, how was the issue addressed?
Hi Dave No abnormal wear on the bearings and no lateral load of significance.When reassembled with the new chain there was no interference between chain and sprocket. There may have been some run out at a previous point possibly by the tensioner being released. The ferule part no 28 on the engine side is adjustable if I remember right.
Maybe the "ferrule" adjustment wasn't set to take out the axial play. The gears in the crankshaft and the intermediate shaft are helical cut gears and would naturally, by design, push apart (front to back) and without taking up the clearance using the ferrule adjustment the whole unit could move forward out of position.
Your quite right. It would, however, limit rearward movement. The ferrule looks like it has some method of changing length with a spanner. Being that both the gear and the sprocket are only indexed with their individual woodruff keys, and not a press fit, the space between the rear bearing and the alignment plane of the timing chain would have to be adjusted to stop movement.
Alastair My chain did not have a clatter at this time. However, I typically drive 4-5000 miles per year with this car it would be getting noisy soon based on prior 6-year history. Each winter I would make a small adjustment and get rid on the noise without ever going tight enough to hear the high pitched wine that the manual says. The reason for doing the job now is that I have reached the end of the adjustment. I take my car out of normal action in late Nov. and have it ready for the road by March 1. So that is where I am at. Get the chain done now to be ready for this year's driving. Now that I have read all of these posts, I probably would have done the job myself and saved the $3k labor. However, after the 4 week job changing the center drive shaft bearing I was not up for another big job. Ken
Hi Dave yes that's right the reason for the adjustability is to enable adjustment to the correct plane of the chain. Regards Alastair
Hi Ken With you there, understand, keep us informed as to how it goes. Prudent of you to get ahead of the game for the coming season glad to hear you put a few miles on your car obviously enjoying it. Regards Alastair
Alastair If you have not seen the article, please locate the April 2012 edition of Forza. They were doing a series on cars/owners that drive their cars a lot. There is a full page about me and my car. Ken
I have just heard from shop that my adjuster is worn down to the bare metal. I hope to visit shop before moving ahead. Ken
Hi Ken Ok positive thinking, did they get it out without removing the engine? if so you could still do works in situ. ie replace adjuster pad and make it back up and see how she goes. The adjuster pad is made of a more sacrificial material than the other guide pads so they might not be so bad. Let us know how it is at the shop. I can run through a list of advisable things to do if you decide to go for engine out. Regards Alastair
Alastair et al I went to shop today. Chain is still on and engine is still in. The pad is nearly all worn off so it has to go. Their plan is to remove all the front auxiliary stuff and not remove the motor. They say there is more room then in a 365 C4 which they have done in the past by pulling motor. They hope the pad on opposite side is still okay since it is NLA. Glad to hear it is of bettr material. The have not pulled the cam covers which they had estimated in job first time and then were going to check/adjust valves. We are postponing that part of job until next year. Since there are timing marks on cams they now feel they do not have to pull cam covers. I now understand how dumb the design is that requires pulling the font cover to change the tensioner. The one pivot will come out with the adjuster rod. The fixed pivot is captive between the block and front cover even though it has a nut outside the front cover! The stud has a step keeping it in side the cover. The job would be so simple if that stud was a a custom bolt and could be removed through the cover. That would allow the tensioner to come right out the top. Oh Colombo! Ken
I guess Enzo's designers didn't have the privilege of trying to replace parts that wear out and have no logical method of replacement. I thought GM had all of "those people" locked up in Detroit? Oh yea, they are working on a new ignition lock design for some reason.
Good that's grand if they can do that and keep the costs down. Moral support is here, keep us informed Regards Alastair
Reminds me of the water pump on an Alfa 1750 engine in a 1971 Berlina sedan I had while I was in college. In order to replace it, the housing needs to come off of the studs on the front of the engine and the crankshaft pulley must be pulled out an inch or so in order for the water pump housing to clear that pulley and come off the studs. As I needed to replace the WP in order to be able to drive 200 miles to my grandfather's funeral, I discovered this at around 10 pm the night before the trip, Naturally I didn't have a pulley puller and so backing off that pulley a small fraction of an inch at a time by tapping it with a hammer and then rotating the crankshaft a few degrees for more hammer taps to ease the pulley off seemed to take forever. I finally finished the job at about 2:30 a.m. and the frustrating thing is that simply relieving the WP housing by 1/8 of an inch or less in the area would have allowed it to clear the pulley with no problem.
My shop told me that 308 (I think or 328) AC compressors are on with studs which means an engine pull to change AC compressor. It they were in with bolts a 15 minute job. I asked if he changed them to bolts and he was not sure.... Ken
Only for the uninformed -- the "trick" on 308/328 is to remove some of the studs (not remove the engine).
