92 Cutlass Ciera - Timing chain?

1992 Oldsmobile Cutlass Ciera 3.3L V6
138,000 miles

aside from a hesitation and intermittent bucking on acceleration, there is a horrendous sound coming from the belt area between idle and a fast idle (no tach, but if i had to guess 1300RPM.)

Belt has been replaced, I can feel the tensioner moving so That part has been ordered and paid for. Also when listening with a scope, most of the noise comes from the tensioner itself. Today i was looking at it and i can by hand spin the belt about six or seven inches in both directions before i am stopped by a metallic clang noise?

Could it be my timing chain bouncing around? The sound is best described as someone pouring steel BB's into a dryer then turning it on...

Whats the timing chain tensioned with? My haynes didn't go into detail on that..

Is there a possibility this is just the tensioner causing the noise?

There are two possibilities, first the tensioner can be bad and causing the noise. Second the harmonic balancer may be going bad, the rubber between the metal surfaces can wear out and cause the two sections to bang together. I really don't think the timing chain is the issue, if it were that loose the car would be jumping time.

Ah Ok. Well the tensioner comes in tomorrow, and Im installing tomorrow so I'll let you guys know how it goes. Thanks alot!