Timing chain wear and parameters thereof.

[Carleton Hughes]

Since purchasing my '84 300 turbo from the original owner{I saw it 2 days after they purchased it} It has proven a reliable daily transport with very few easy to repair issues,mostly cosmetic since it was serviced regularly since new.

Here's the deal. It now has 211,000 miles on the motor of which I have put about 2,000. In that time the oil has not gone down noticeably nor is there much blowby so perhaps I should count myself lucky.

Word being that a turbo diesel is more over stressed than a non-turbo how can timing chain wear and tensioner weakness be established? to my knowledge nothing on the engine,save the normal belts & seals has ever been replaced.

I'm gonna adjust the valves in a week or 2,no problem there. But how do I establish if the chain is stretched?any deflection measurements or tensioner guidelines to follow?

[leathermang]

There are no deflection measurements to take.....
You have a racheting spring/oil pressure slack take up on the passenger side of the chain run.
Putting a new chain/tensioner guide and rails is not too big a job... and is a worthy preventative maintenance job since the chain itself seldom breaks.. it is usually a worn rail which does it in... causing much damage.
As to how to check for chain stretch the online manual ( do a search for skinnerbox ) or the many many great threads in the archives will tell you more than you ever wanted to know about that...