Ok so I got one of these 18RG tensioners and shortened the plunger as per the instructions. I confirmed that there was no play in the chain on the tensioner side.

However when I started the engine (an 18R-GEU in an RX63 Mark II), it had a REALLY LOUD chain rattle (way worse than the rattle I was seeking to fix with the new tensioner). This rattle went away when I revved the engine.

I took the cam cover back off and rotated the engine a full cycle to confirm there was no slack in the chain - there wasn't. I replaced the cover and started it up again - chain still rattled like mad at idle.

I ended up re-installing the old factory tensioner back into the head - engine starts and idles without nasty evil rattling!

I noticed that the oil feed hole in the SW Motorsports tensioner is a fair bit larger than the oil feed hole in the factory tensioner.. and there are two of them instead of just the single hole as per the factory tensioner.. Seeing as the evil rattle when using the SW Motorsports tensioner appears to go away when the revs are up, I was wondering if the larger diameter and the additional hole is preventing the engine from fully-pressurising the tensioner at idle... I can't see any other reason why it is behaving like this.


I've seen a few posts on here where people have mentioned the tensioners from SW Motorsports, but has anyone here actually got an engine running with one? Did you run into trouble with chain rattle at idle?

I've emailed Stewart Wilkins about this to see if he could shed any light on it, but am yet to hear back. I was hoping a resident genius here might be able to help

Cheers,
Rob