Happy to contribute when I feel I can. This platform is something we put a LOT of effort into, and one we will keep progressing and pushing hard. These motors are really efficient and make good power. I’ll say this, if these were offered in a mustang you would be seeing GTR type numbers and parts available as the engines can be closely linked to each other in many respects
To answer your question, yes we are planning on a fix, however there is a lot that has to happen and we are firm believers in the testing part of development. So we will need to get some trouble free testing done on the engine dyno once we have a first prototype. We are actively test fitting better tensioners now however, and we are close. The new style tensioners are an issue, they aren’t good. As an example ford changed the gen1 tensioners to the new style like the Gen2 but bolt patterns differ. The gen1 engines we build we use a Mazda tensioner with hardened ratcheting teeth, and the body of the tensioners are cast iron, not light and soft aluminum with plunger style spring loaded tensioning.
Interestingly ford has both Gen2 tensioners fed by passages coming from the main oil galley, however the tensioners on the Gen2 which are currently used have oil flow restrictive plates on their back side. This is good because the ratcheting style tensioner is like to use will be happy with the oil to its backside without a restrictive plate. Ideally everything we offer will have oring sealing to the block, whereas ford has no oring sealing to anything, not even the oil pump housing to the block. It is machined surface against machined surface.
If you add enough non sealed or non oring sealed parts that have no true no leak down due to lack of sealing, you get enough leakdown from top of the engine to the bottom to starve components (like phasers) so when they are started the morning after the truck sat no longer have any oil in them, it all drained back, or leaked out other lower parts like the tensioners. So when truck turns over and you hear the clack clack sound in the morning after a cold soak, that is the cam phaser with no oil in it so when turned the inside components are just hitting the housing on the inside. There is not oil pressure where they are suppose to have it. That’s why trucks that sit clack clack.
