Hydraulic cam chain tensioner, diagnosis? How?

[hillbilly30]

How can I tell if the tensioner is FUBAR by means of inspection? It looks like its working!

(Chain is almost certainly slapping on inlet side of engine (m42) where it has a long run from crank to cam)

Thanks.

[TheDutch]

I've never heard of a way to test the tensioner. In my experience it's extremely obvious if it's doing nothing at all (i.e. the racket you get for a few seconds when installing a new one), however I don't know what they do if a bit worn. That said, your cam sprockets look very worn, worse than mine when I replaced them on ~155k, so I'd sort those out personally.

[hillbilly30]

Yea they don't look great but its seems strange to me that the chain is quiet on cold start, hot running and high and low revs. It's just this 2500-3500rpm range when I get this noise.
Would ideally prolong the life of the m42 just a bit longer then go m52