[Huskymaniac]

Originally Posted by 92 SVX

If the intake cam subgear isn't held in place when the cam is removed and the subgear "unwinds" when you put it back together the engine will sound rattly like a diesel. it won't hurt anything but it does annoy lol. The lash of the gear to gear cams is the likely cause.

I finally convinced the mechanic who did the job to listen to the car and he now agrees with your assumption. He doesn't recall keeping the split gear in tension and just lined the gears back up when he re-installed the cams. The sound doesn't sound like typical intake, exhaust or vacuum leaks to him. Car runs fine and you only hear the diesel sound from outside the car when it is idling. I am ok with just leaving it be so long as there won't be massive issues. I will probably only keep the car another 50K miles or so. So if any additional wear is only an issue over 100k or 200k miles, I will just let is stay as is.

I would love to hear opinions on the wear issues that not tensioning the split gear will cause.