Restoring life to this LS

[ninja jt]

I have an LS that has been sitting for 2-3 years because of a broken timing chain tensioner. I took off both valve covers and the driver side tensioner looks ok, but the passenger is broken. I'm obviously going to replace the passenger one and all of the gaskets from the valve cover. The driver side tensioner looks slightly different than the passenger and I think I remember reading about a design change. Is the one on my driver side the newer design(see pictures)? Should I replace it anyway while I have it open? Getting that driver side cover off was a PITA but it'll be a piece of cake next time.

Since the engine hasn't run in so long I'm a little worried about starting it being so dry, so I've been putting some marvel in the cylinders and I'm trying to find ways to prime the engine with oil before the first crank. I came across this and I like the idea. Anyone done this or primed it any other way? Is there a plug like this on the V8 that I could use if I make one of these?

This isn't a daily driver so I can take my time with it, but I would like to get it on the road sooner rather than later.

 

[FDR]

Hopefully I'm not too late... You're not looking at the design change. You're looking at a broken original design. There is supposed to be a plastic slide against the chain, not a flat metal plate. The slide fell off and may be sitting somewhere under the tensioner.

The design change was to take the plastic body and replace it with metal. The normal secondary tensioner failure mode is to split along the spring and take away the outward pressure on the chain

You can see here there are two white slides on the tensioner, top and bottom. It also has a metal body. Note: it looks like the transition period from old to new has a mid step where it has a metal body, but red plastic slides

Broken body