May have really screwed up

[Dcreech0]

Hello all. I was in the process of change out my valve seals today and think I may have added a lot more work for myself. I had read other people’s stories on doing the same job and felt confident. Long story short I have change the valve seal as intended, but the chain tensioner lost tension even with my wedge I used on the chain. I opted to use compressed air through the plug holes to keep the valves up and while doing do it caused the pistons to move, thus moving the chain just enough, thus losing my wedge on the chain. 
so upon looking at what I’m dealing with now, I have the crank and the cam at tdc, but I can’t get enough chain to come up around the cam sprocket. 
am I going to have to pull the whole front timing cover to remedy this. I’m kicking myself in the nuts by the way (figuratively)……

[SteveJ]

If you ever do this again, make sure the car is in gear and wheels are chocked before you apply the compressed air. That will keep the pistons from moving. How much PSI were you using? 

Someone else will have to provide guidance on the timing chain, but yeah, you're going to have to reduce tension to get the chain on.

Life is a cruel teacher. You get the test first and the lesson afterward.

[Dcreech0]

13 minutes ago, SteveJ said:

If you ever do this again, make sure the car is in gear and wheels are chocked before you apply the compressed air. That will keep the pistons from moving. How much PSI were you using? 

Someone else will have to provide guidance on the timing chain, but yeah, you're going to have to reduce tension to get the chain on.

Life is a cruel teacher. You get the test first and the lesson afterward.

I figured as much. Oh well. I guess it would be a good time to go ahead and replace the chain and tensioner. 😂 

[Racer X]

Why did you have the chain wedged? Did you remove the cam sprocket? If so, again, why?

Changing valve stem seals is a relatively straightforward job, even with the head on the car. Set the cylinder for valve you’re working on at just before top dead center on the compression stroke, feed some rope into the cylinder through the spark plug hole, leaving a bit out so you have something to pull the rope out by. Roll the crankshaft over a bit more toward top dead center until you feel the piston compressing the rope against the valves, then change out the valve stem seals for that cylinder.

Repeat five more times.

Or, use the compressed air trick, but only do each cylinder individually at top dead center.

 

[Patcon]

I know of no way to get the chain tensioner back in then by removing the front cover

[SteveJ]

6 minutes ago, Racer X said:

Why did you have the chain wedged? Did you remove the cam sprocket? If so, again, why?

Changing valve stem seals is a relatively straightforward job, even with the head on the car. Set the cylinder for valve you’re working on at just before top dead center on the compression stroke, feed some rope into the cylinder through the spark plug hole, leaving a bit out so you have something to pull the rope out by. Roll the crankshaft over a bit more toward top dead center until you feel the piston compressing the rope against the valves, then change out the valve stem seals for that cylinder.

Repeat five more times.

Or, use the compressed air trick, but only do each cylinder individually at top dead center.

 

Yeah, a little later I found myself wondering how it could have gotten out of sync, since I don't recall seeing anyone describing touching the chain while doing the valve stem replacement.

[Dcreech0]

2 minutes ago, SteveJ said:

Yeah, a little later I found myself wondering how it could have gotten out of sync, since I don't recall seeing anyone describing touching the chain while doing the valve stem replacement.

I opted to remove the cam to get better access to the springs and seals. I’m ocd that way. I bought one of those o spring compressors that grab the cam but was not happy with how it was working. Hard to clear the cam towers. So I opted to slide the cam out of the towers to get batter access. Hence the removal of the sprocket and chain. 

[SteveJ]

Unfortunately you picked the wrong time to be CDO. (I prefer having the letters in alphabetical order.) 😉

 

[Zed Head]

There are descriptions around the internet of people using long skinny tools and amazing eyesight being able to push the tensioner piston back in to its bore, and getting things back together.  I think that there are also stories of people spending a lot of time trying this before giving up and taking the front cover off.  Can't hurt to poke around down there and see what your abilities are.

[SteveJ]

3 minutes ago, Zed Head said:

There are descriptions around the internet of people using long skinny tools and amazing eyesight being able to push the tensioner piston back in to its bore, and getting things back together.  I think that there are also stories of people spending a lot of time trying this before giving up and taking the front cover off.  Can't hurt to poke around down there and see what your abilities are.

I'm not sure why this came to mind after reading your post...

 

[Zed Head]

An old thread with pictures so you can see what you might dealing with.

 

[Jeff G 78]

I remember letting the tensioner pop out back in the 80's.  You will only let it happen once.  🙂  It adds time to the job, but pulling the front cover really isn't that bad.  It adds a few hours at most.  

I've done air, rope, and rubber hose to hold the valves closed.  Rope is the best method.  The hose is a bit to squishy and allows some valve movement.  Air works fine, but is too risky.  if anything goes wrong with air, the job gets MUCH harder.  I have had good luck with the KD valve spring compressor tool on stock valve springs, but performance springs and spring caps make it much more difficult to fit.  I have to remove one of the two cam hooks for the three valves closest to the towers in order to get the tool to fit properly over the valve spring cap.  I've probably used the tool at least a dozen times and likely more over the last 25 years.