One of the many things that a lot of folks change when doing a cam swap or other work on their LS series engine is the timing chain tensioner. The SS has the LS3 style which is an actual tensioner. The LS2 and engine from that era had a block between the chain and the original LS1 had no tensioner at all :eek
The theroy is that the LS3 tensioner is made of plastic and very weak and using it will ruin your life so you need to change to a LS2 style tensioner which will make you irresistible to the opposite sex (or your own if that's your thing), make you wealthy and healthy, so change it NOW.
I don't care what you use in you own engine or if you use anthing, but I was tearing down a L76 from an 09 G8 GT (HOLDEN FOREVER!! :wink ) and I figured people would be interested to see an example. The L76 is essentially an LS2 (6.0 aluminum block with displacement on demand).
This engine has 144k miles on it and has typical LS wear - the pistons are perfect, the bores look brand new and the cam bearings are at the end of their useful life. Also typical is the fact that the outside of the engine looks like it was stored at the bottom of the sea for quite a while, the the inside is very good. The leakdown test was as good as a brand new engine. This one is getting a refresh and a new life in a little project I am working on.
As you can see the tensioner does not have any real wear on it and the chain had no slack because the tensioner was taking it up. Don't be scared by the cam bearing.
YMMV and remember any part on any machine can fail at any time.
The theroy is that the LS3 tensioner is made of plastic and very weak and using it will ruin your life so you need to change to a LS2 style tensioner which will make you irresistible to the opposite sex (or your own if that's your thing), make you wealthy and healthy, so change it NOW.
I don't care what you use in you own engine or if you use anthing, but I was tearing down a L76 from an 09 G8 GT (HOLDEN FOREVER!! :wink ) and I figured people would be interested to see an example. The L76 is essentially an LS2 (6.0 aluminum block with displacement on demand).
This engine has 144k miles on it and has typical LS wear - the pistons are perfect, the bores look brand new and the cam bearings are at the end of their useful life. Also typical is the fact that the outside of the engine looks like it was stored at the bottom of the sea for quite a while, the the inside is very good. The leakdown test was as good as a brand new engine. This one is getting a refresh and a new life in a little project I am working on.
As you can see the tensioner does not have any real wear on it and the chain had no slack because the tensioner was taking it up. Don't be scared by the cam bearing.
YMMV and remember any part on any machine can fail at any time.
