New To Me 00 With An 02 Gt Drive Train

I'm the new guy... Just picked up an 00 Mustang with a complete 02 GT drivetrain including the Tremec 3650 and 8.8 posi. It was running pretty well until it warmed up and then it would tap away. It sounded deeper in the motor, but it's not rod bearings. I've done a ton of reading and decided to do the lash tensioners. They ended up being smoked when I pulled them. I did those last night and when I fired it up with the valve covers off, it was a ton quieter. I couldn't warm it up completely though because of the oil spray...

I decided that I'm going to do the timing chain kit too while I have the valve covers off. I ordered the Cloyes set up from Summit. Any tips or tricks before I pull the timing cover off tonight?

Here it is. I had to de-ghettofy it a bit. I bought it because there wasn't a spec of rust on the whole thing and it was pretty clean over all. The first pic is how it looked. Since then I put the black wheels on it with 335/35R17 back tires. I picked up a hood and trunk lid from the bone yard for $40 each. I'm undecided on the factory style hood or the cowl. I think I'm going with the cowl. Either one is going to get flat blacked out with SEM Hot Rod black. It'll end up looking like the last pic.

Before I write a book on you, I'll post a few pics. Feel free to ask about anything on it. I’m new to this Mustang, but I’m just finishing up restoring a 69 Camaro SS396, so I’m more or less a gear head.






After a little work:





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See if the 30 sec video will load. This was before doing the lash adjusters. You can hear them for a second at the beginning of the vid.


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wmburns said:

Good idea on replacing the timing chains. NOTE, it's actually common for the guides to fail at about 150,000 miles. The broken pieces of plastic will fall down into the oil pan and BLOCK the oil pick up thus starving the motor top end of oil. It seems possible to me that the original failure could be caused by low oil pressure.

If when the front timing cover is removed broken timing guides is found then double check the oil pan for debris.

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Thanks a lot. I threw the motor back together last night to see if it really was the lash adjusters making the noise. I took it for a drive and unfortunately the noise came back after it warmed up. The lash adjusters were definitely smoked and needed to be changed. The engine in general quieted down a lot and the throttle response was 100% better.
Now it's easier to locate the tapping and it sounds like it's at the front of the motor. I would have put the timing chain kit in last night, but it won't be here for a few more days. I'll throw it in on Sat or Sun and see how it goes. I'm pretty confident that it's the issue.

DSG_Mach said:

Thank you for taking those ugly rims off of the car, now if you can get some OEM tail lights that would help a lot. Jk don't want to come off as a jerk . Cant wait to read more about this build.

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I hate Alteeza tail lights... They go with the rims lol. If they were smoked, they might not be so bad.