Doug,

I hate to "bust your bubble", but I would hate to see you suffer a timing chain failure as well. Simply lining up the marks is not really adequate to accurately determine timing chain stretch. Those marks are just there and close enough to get the chain on the proper teeth. There is a procedure in the MB manual which uses a dial indicator one of the number one valves to precisely determine the timing chain stretch.

I hope you're not one to shoot the messenger, but I would feel guilty if you lost an engine after I had decided to remain silent about this.

On the encouraging side, these are double row chains and quite durable.

BTW, Congratulations on getting the valve adjust successfully done. It always makes you feel good when you do it yourself. Good job!

Good luck,