Horrible sound ( afraid of the worst )

[Musij]

So driving home (40 miles) after doing my steering rack change, a nasty clanking noise appeared out of nowhere. It increased with RPMs. Trying to find it, I concluded it was coming from within the engine. Took out the oil and I found a lot of metal ( see pic).

After doing some research and getting advice from a mechanic I found that it was probably my chain, and it might be the tensioner. So I took the old tensioner out, stuck 2 small washers between it and the holding bolt, and the sound changed. Great. Ordered a new tensioner. Yesterday did a fresh oil change and put in the new tensioner. Now here's where I think I might have made a mistake. I read that it didn't matter whether to put the tensioner in compressed or decompressed. So I thought cool, compressed is easier.

FYI: the chain was done about 3 years ago. I bought the car 3 months ago and it ran incredibly till this happened. No clicking noise, nothing. The tensioner that came out was a modern m44 tensioner, the upgraded one. So I'm not sure how either of those could have gone bad so soon. None the less.

When I went to start the car, the worse noise I've ever heard from an engine started. The car doesn't start and the noise is loud. Check out the video to see what I'm talking about.

At this point I'm going to take the valve cover off to check out how the chain looks from up top, but does anyone know from the noise itself what it could be? You can feel something just being tossed around in the engine even on the steering wheel. I'm afraid it might be an engine killing problem.

Video: https://youtu.be/oNPNrhNoICs

[1998ccc]

Did you make sand castles with that bucket and forget to rinse it?  lol

If the complete thrust bearing dissolved into flakes you wouldn't have that much metal.  Was the oil pressure light on @ idle?  Could be rod bearings as well.

Drop your lower pan and look for guide bits...they don't always fit through the drain hole.

Good luck.

[Musij]

Did you make sand castles with that bucket and forget to rinse it?  lol

If the complete thrust bearing dissolved into flakes you wouldn't have that much metal.  Was the oil pressure light on @ idle?  Could be rod bearings as well.

Drop your lower pan and look for guide bits...they don't always fit through the drain hole.

Good luck.

Lol I wish. It was an insane amount of shaved metal. Crazy right? Super finely shaved too. No big pieces, well, that I know of.

Oil light turned on the first time I started the car while the nose was lifted. I reset the light and it never turned back on again.

[1998ccc]

Is it copper colored or aluminum colored?  I've seen the chain saw through the upper case.  I've never seen in person the idler sprocket failure but I'm sure that would leave Al shavings as well.

If you get lucky, it may be all timing chain bits.  If not, you need a new bottom end.  If the bearings are all chewed up, so is the crank.

Good luck

[Musij]

Is it copper colored or aluminum colored?  I've seen the chain saw through the upper case.  I've never seen in person the idler sprocket failure but I'm sure that would leave Al shavings as well.

If you get lucky, it may be all timing chain bits.  If not, you need a new bottom end.  If the bearings are all chewed up, so is the crank.

Good luck

I believe they're copper colored. Not sure though. I'll run some through water when I get home to say for sure. If it's cooper, which one of the ones you mentioned would it be?

[1998ccc]

Copper colored would be bearings.