Cam Pre-Tensioners for Timing

[Heiko]

Originally Posted by NewArt

Well, hells bells, I'm impressed! Having just done the aforementioned pumping to set my cam timing, these could have come in handy.
I guess one would need to have a set of old tensioners kicking about and also understand the principle of the platinum-plated Porsche tools to fabricate such an item. Seems pretty straight forward, but did you have access to the genuine tools to see how they were made?

NewArt, I've never had the luxury of touching the 'platinum-plated' Porsche ones... but the Porsche tensioners are adjustable to a steady tension point which basically keeps very steady predefined pressure onto the chain guide. I'm sure you pay $100 per pound of accuracy, but for my wallet and sake of timing adjustment this is better than nothing.
The spring pre-load is still the same as the original pressure, the bolt simply keeps the tensioner from collapsing beyond a certain point... which is what the oil does, basically slows the collapsing process.
I guess one could improve on this version and drill out the hole bigger and instead of having a bolt hold the initial set-point, use a bigger bolt that pushes against the spring to increase the preload.... I guess if someone knew what the preload was from the original Porsche ones, one could preload and measure the distance the bolt would have to compress the spring to achieve that same pressure... wouldn't be so hard.
Once the process is complete, you pop them out and replace them with the real ones (yes and don't forget to pump them in oil before inserting them).