I'll preface this post by saying it is for a few reasons. Primarily, just to let me blow off some steam. Secondly, to serve as a heads-up for other M42 owners. Lastly, as a warning about a certain engine remanufacturer, whom shall go unnamed until I hear what they have to say.
After three years of just routine maintenance and loving care, my M42 finally gave me a repair week from hell. I've battled with the idle/stalling ever since I bought the car and it seemed to get worse over time. Finally it began stalling out regularly, but after cleaning up the vacuum hoses as documented
here, and unplugging the "Make-the-car-run-shitty" wire as discussed
here, that seems to be gone (fingers crossed, of course).
Once I got that side of the engine back together, it idled fine, but I heard a strange noise, like a lady of the streets slowly swirling marbles around her teeth. It was silent above idle, but I still did not like the sound of it. I parked the car again, and ordered the M44 tensioner from Pelican. After overnighting it across the country and putting the new one in, the marbles were still swirling.
Now, to their credit, this company seems to have done their research. The tensioner I took out seemed to be in great shape, and was the M44 variant instead of the M42. I suppose I shouldn't be completely surprised, since the engine only has a little under 50k miles on it since the prior owner dropped this one in.
After expressing some desires to club a baby seal and set my car on fire and pushing it off of a cliff, my brother calmed me down and advised me to take the car apart. After a week of working on the car to no avail, the last thing I wanted to do was tear the other side of the engine apart. He graciously did most of the work with my help (and by help I mean handing tools and drinking beer) and we proceeded to remove the timing covers.
As we were pulling off the upper cover, my brother noticed something awry.
The bolt that holds the timing chain guide to the block had threaded itself out, and as such the chain was rattling ever so slightly against the guide rail. The rail itself appears to be in great shape, which makes me think that it only worked itself out in the week or two prior. I did not hear this marbles sound when I was inspected the car a week a go diagnose the idle issue.
Which leads me to my gripe about the engine remanufacturer. After doing some research on realoem, I found out that yes, there was indeed supposed to be a bolt inside this hollow bolt. You can see it
here, part 9. I believe the larger hollow screw is a part of the guide rail, so it doesn't have a part number of its own, someone please correct me if I'm wrong here.
So we pulled the oil pan, as if it was indeed installed and had worked its way out, it would end up there. The engine ran fine prior to this noise, and the pickup filter was intact, no signs of a bolt making it through to the upper pan/engine. So, unless I am way off the mark here, and am making up parts that do not exist, the rebuilt engine that the prior owner paid nearly $5k for was void of what I would consider to be one of the more "vital" bolts in the engine. Not exactly premium service for a premium price.
While cleaning the gasket residue off of the covers, I found this little gem. Obviously this hollow bolt has been working its way out for a while.
