camshaft valve cover chain skates or pads

Hi All:
Does anyone know what is the story about the skates or pads that the mechanical parts book (Tav. 5, Comando Distribuzione) show mounted in the cam cover? This is part number 161905 and is described as "Pattino Tenuta Catena". My car, which is a 1970 M-series Euro model, does not have evidence of this part ever being installed in the cam covers...there would be 2 attaching holes in the covers near the cam sprocket areas. I also do not see evidence of these pads in every photo I look at of the valve covers in my service books...you would see the heads of two domed nuts that hold the skate.

Does anyone have these skates mounted on their cam covers? The reason I ask is that both my cam covers do have evidence of the chains hitting the cam covers in the past...see attached photos. I have my engine out now and rebuilt with all new parts and so I am debating whether or not to add these skates because I do not want the timing chains to wear a hole into the cam covers.
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The wear on the covers is due to bad maintenance. No relation to: "Pattino Tenuta Catena"

 

Hi:
Well, for sure the car did not have good maintenance when I bought it...it was pretty rough cosmetically, had a lot of aftermarket repair parts, missing parts, but the engine seemed to run very well. I decided to rebuild the engine and entire car very shortly after I bought it because the engine would blow a cloud of smoke when it was above 130mph. The engine rebuilder said that the wear on the internal engine parts was nothing unusual with the biggest problem the valve guides were very worn. When disassembling the engine I did note that the long timing chains had a lot of side play and the side slippers (opposite the tensioners) had a lot of chain wear like my cam covers. It has been a few years since I rebuilt the engine but I still have not attempted to start it...I have new chains but I dont think any of the parts in the tensioners are new...maybe I need to at least buy new springs for the tensioners before I start it. I am still curious as to the documentation issue with the skates or pads in the cam cover.

 

Early cars did not have these sliders on there from factory. Later cars did and I am not sure if there was ever a TSB for retrofit of them. That said your car is 100% correct to not have the sliders and the marks on the inside of the cam cover are totally normal.

 

Hi Rob:
Thanks for the advisement...I have new chains installed and just ordered a new set of tensioner springs and side slippers...I will just install this stuff and make sure it is all in good working order and adjusted correctly and hope the chains dont wear through the covers over time.

 

With correct adjustment you have nothing to worry about. It is important to remember that back in the day these engines were driven hard and rough without a lot of care to maintenance. It was in those instances that slop could creep in that would lead to the desire to have the additional sliders. Nowadays even the most heavily driven Dino is still cared for much more than before and this is practically a non-issue.