82 380SL - is engine shot?
 

Chain tensioner went out, can this engine be saved?

The engine might be repairable; the whiny owner who posted the same question three times, not likely.

The 1982 380 engines were produced with a single row timing chain system that would fail after many miles of use. They would start to make rattling noise on start up and eventually will jump timing on the drivers side cam sprocket. These failures will ususally cause engine valves to bend, requiring that the head be removed for repair. The other problem these engines can have is that the head bolt holes in the engine block can be very brittle and start to pull out of the block when you try to re-tighten the cylinder head to the engine block, this requires helicoils to be installed for repair. You will also need to convert the timing chain and all the gears to a double row style, which is called a double row conversion. I do not know how much it will cost but I can tell you that it could be worth more than the value of the car.

In August and September of 2016 a poster using the name "burtajack" made a number of posts about tensioner and chain problems in the engine of a 380SL, including seeking replacement engines and labor help.
Nothing that we can see came of that series of posts. Now the same subject is again being posted under the same user name in three different threads.
1) Does "burtajack" not remember the past posts?
2) Is it possible that "burta" is just "jacking" everybody on this forum around?