I started driving down the highway at 75 MPH with the air on and the radio cranked up, 15 miles later when I turned off the air and turned the radio down before my offramp, my engine was making a horrible ticking/taping/pinging/slapping/screaching sound (I just hope it wasn't doing that for the entire 15 miles
). Anyway, I had it towed to the shop I work at. I havn't had a chance to look at it yet (other than a quick "Well, nothing important's missing or on fire" while I was waiting on the tow truck) because I work the first of two shifts , which leaves me SOL until Saturday when I can finally tear it apart (and home is about 15 miles from the shop, so I'm not towing it there for a 2 day head start)
Anyway, back to the car. I think what happened is the plastic came off the chain tensioner, which is letting the timing jump around. My first question, then, is if the engine is interference; and my second question is, if it is, would the plastic coming off the tensioner loosen the chain enough that a piston could hit a valve? (or, rather, all of the pistons hit all of the valves?)