Timing chain teeth health?

[Trav]

While sawzall’ing off my water pump, I accidentally cut into my timing chain cover (I’m an idiot). So I removed my cover and this is what the teeth look like… Is this ok? I don’t know what they are suppose to look like…. I really want to get this thing buttoned up, and on the road ASAP.

Also what’s the easiest way to clean off the chain and gears? Need this timing cover metal shavings off now.

[theunz]

When sprockets wear they usually wear on the side that the chain puts the most tension on. The “U” shape will be less steep on that side. It’s really difficult to tell from pictures as the angle of the camera can distort the image, but yours seems to show wear. At a minimum I would replace the chains, but it would be better to change gears and tensioners as well. How many miles on the engine?

[Bwk2000]

Like Mike said, it’s tough to tell from that picture, but it looks to me as if your cam sprocket has seen better days. Since everything is already apart and accessible, I would go further and replace the timing chain, both sprockets and tensioner). The cost is minimal (several vendors sell them as full kits for the 5 bearing engines) and the benefits are huge. That also has the added benefit of making the cleanup of the metal shavings much easier.

[Gregs672000]

The crank gear is shot and should not be run IMHO. I'd replace the entire set up.

[Trav]

Ok, you guys convinced me, I’ll look into replacing all of it…. Is there a tech write up somewhere on how to do so? I’m slightly novice mechanic, and somewhat nervous about deconstructing more of the engine while its in the car.

Stupid question… Do I need to remove the heads to get to sprockets/chain?

[Bwk2000]

Been awhile since I did one, but as I recall, it’s not that difficult (no need to remove the head). However, attention to detail is paramount when aligning the sprockets (and to a lesser degree shimming up the tensioner). Don’t rush it and make sure the alignment is 100% correct. I can send you the service manual write-up if you need it, but the threads below have much more detail. Have a read of them and see if it makes sense to you.

viewtopic.php?p=14515&hilit=R16+timing+chain#p14515


viewtopic.php?p=98745&hilit=R16+timing+chain#p98745


viewtopic.php?p=242051&hilit=R16+timing+chain#p242051