Cman01

So yesterday I got the oil pump off and removed the cam gear and chain. Before I did that I noticed that there is slack in the chain. I had not touched the chain tensioner at all.

I take it the slack is supposed to be there? I thought the tensioner was there to take up the slack but I don't see how it does that (the vids that I've seen on LS3 engines show a different tensioner which to me looks to take up the slack in the chain).

Basically when I removed the 3 cam bolts I was able to take the cam gear off with the chain and the tensioner didn't really do anything to prevent me from removing the chain.

Tony

Dan_the_C5_Man

The "tensioner" block you see is not there to "apply tension" to the chain - it is to reduce the "whipping" motion that occurs when a chain is in operation, which is the number-one cause of stretching, wear (and sometimes) snapping.

From your description, nothing seems out of place.

Cman01

Ok thanks, when I put the C7R chain back on after the cam is installed it'll have the same amount of slack then.

Dan_the_C5_Man

Approximately.. Depends on how many miles your old chain had on it.

UniTink72

While you are in there, the "proper" procedure is to use feeler gauges to get the oil pump gear centered around the crankshaft. The procedure is in the GM shop manual. Just letting you know cause its not in any of the DIY howto docs. Most ignore it, it seems.

Cman01

Car's an 09 Z just past 30,000kms. so basically no real chain wear that I could see. What slack there is I will take as normal W&T.

LS7 pump is different than other LS oil pumps. I asked about this and even in my GM SM they don't say anything about shimming the gears to line them up to the crank. Post I did here a few weeks back:

https://www.corvetteforum.com/forums...pump-area.html

UniTink72

Very interestin. I was just going by what I had been told in my ls7 build thread, don't have the manual. It's been a while, but I recall that you could shift the pump housing very slightly around the crack shaft, just a few thousandths. Thought the procedure was meant to get that housing perfectly centered.