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I know that in the seventies, Cloyes used chain supplied by Reynolds of England. The chain was guaranteed to not stretch. I don't know who supplies their chain now, but I would definitely trust Cloyes.
The Cloyes Double is the industry standard! But Scoggins Dickey had a real nice double with steel gears (German made I think), that was a little over a hundred! Nice unit!
I know they were still around in 1971. I had one go bad on my 71 vette back in the late 70's. Couldn't believe it when I pulled the cover and saw that nylon mess, what were they thinking!!!???
GM has a lot of history "unthinking". 440 tranny in the 80s and 90s; rack and pinions that leaked from day one and were never modified; let's not forget head gaskets on all those Buicks, Pontiac, and Oldsmobiles of the same period; fuel delivery issues to boot. Made those cars in the millions and never corrected a thing. Now, their 3.6 has timing chain stretching issues (only about $8K for that fix) but they are void of any plastic gearing. Looks like some progress is being made.
Last edited by Dan Hampton; Jan 25, 2019 at 10:39 PM.
GM has had their moments in engineering greatness but nothing and I mean nothing to approach the other brands 4.0 v6. A timing chain job on one of those is $4,000 if you catch it before your engine is trash. In their infinite wisdom the over head cam heads are the same for each side. Meaning the timing gear is on the front of one head and the rear of the other. You cannot change them in the car. An idler shaft runs the length of the engine to drive the rear gear and to get the chain off you have to remove the engine. Once you get it out and get ready to change the timing chains surprise surprise there are no timing marks or key ways or dowel pins on anything except the crank gear. The timing gears are free to rotate on the cam or idler shaft. They rely on one bolt on each gear to hold them in place. You are supposed to hav special tool br549 to hold everything in position while you change the gears and chains.
Cloyes C3023K OE replacement truck roller chain set or the four degrees advance/retard option version, C3023X. These sets are available in other brands including NAPA... same parts, just a different marketing channel.
The OE replacement passenger car silent chain set is C3021K. This is the second design all metal version that is narrower than the early set up to the '64 time frame that replaced the nylon cam gear type that was OE from '65 to ???, but these are junk and have a habit of shredding teeth. This nylon tooth cam sprocket set has not been manufactured for decades. I'm not sure if there is an adjustable version of the C3021K. Check the Cloyes Web site.
All should be in the range of 20-25 bucks for the set... shop around for the best price.
Duke
For a 283 220 HP looking for timing chain replacement. Current one not horrible but since it's apart drilling for balancer bolt figure just replace. Duke posted Cloyes C3023K about 6 years ago. So, any updated suggestions or is this still the best choice. Mild performance driver, looking for dependable quality.
I can flex the one side about half inch, other side very little flex, if you expand the picture the crank gear teeth are worn with deep grooves from the chain. So really quite a bit of wear.
The iwis brand chain is the best chain. I'm not sure which brands use them in their sets. I just bought a US made Dynagear set for my LS and I'll be damned if it didn't come with a chain made in India. I bought it because they said US made.
Cardboard box it came in was made in the USA... Friend who used to sell parts told me about fighting that problem...... No joke ....
On the other hand, those nylon sprockets were known to run many tens of thousands of miles without a problem. Almost 200, 000 miles of personal eperience. Not taking up for them, just saying....................
And on the other hand I have seen many of those plastic teeth sucked up into the oil pump intake screen.....