Can noisy silent shaft chain be repaired without pulling the engine?

[Acuta73]

To add to what PowerRam said, you CAN replace everything under the timing housing without pulling the engine...but. First thing is probably to remove the radiator unless you really enjoy working in insanely tight places. Unbolt the motor mounts and jack up the engine just enough to allow you to unbolt the oil pan. Unbolt the oil pan, drop it an inch or so, and commence to removing timing cover.

Warning: Putting a new gasket on the oil pan will be...challenging. You can do this without actually dropping the oil pan down, but to seal everything up you'll need to use RTV on the now torn up gasket and re-seating the timing cover will be a royal pain (there are 2 guide pins in the block). I did this, it's ugly and may leak.


Edit: A noisy timing chain may not be a loose one. If someone replaced the chain in the past, they may not have put the rubber bumper back into the tension plunger spring (oil pump). This was a work-around some time in the 80's because of complaints about the sound. It won't hurt anything, just makes noise. Just a thought as it may not be the silent shaft chain?