My timing chain went out in december and when i replaced it,with a steel one, this is what it looked like.



completely worn thru the stupid plastic coating and much of the teeth are gone..

need i say that i got very lucky that it didn't bend a lifter or something..

did a compression check after the replacement and it reads 190 across the board..

pretty good for a 15 yr. old engine which when new was like 250..

You got that right!


Long live the gm 3.8L

Yes...you were pretty damn lucky...

About what mileage did it go out on you?
Mine still has the original timing chain...

TOC Admin
Brando

They say on average they last for 70,000 miles. I know I'm gonna have mine checked out since I'm getting close to 80,000

Better safe than sorry!

TOC Admin
Brando

That's exactly what I say. That was also my 100th Post!! YAY Lets have another look at it!

it had about 109,000 miles on it when it decided to go out..
it was running alil week and then 1 day it just wouldn't start.
took it to my mechanic and he fixed it..

if he wasn't a man i would have kissed him,but instead i just gave him money.

I pretty sure the timing chain in my 85 cutlass is the original and that has like 285,000 miles on it

Yikes!

the first timing chain in my car lasted 105,000. that was when i got the car, it had a broken timing chain, bent valves and pushrods. but the price was right (free). i replaced the chain again around 200,000 as preventative maintenance. one thing to watch out for is the cam sensor pickup on the cam sprocket. when i got my car the chain was already on it and i didn't notice that the magnet for the cam sensor was broken off, got it all back together and it wouldn't start. had to take the timing cover off again to replace it. i replaced the timing chain, heads and pushrods on an 86 Toronado, that was the same way, the magnet broken off, but i was watching out for it this time.

I had the exact same thing happen to me... GM and thier cheapo manufactuing. I had a post on here about that too... The replacement gears that went in were all steel gear and teeth. I cant beleive they used aluminum with plastic coating.

the plastic gears are to make it quieter, not cheap manufacturing. it is just another maintenance item, just like a timing belt would be. i replaced mine with GM parts because i heard the steel gears on the aftermarket replacement timing chains can interfere with the cam sensor sometimes.

Oh... I dunno... I guess the noise issue would be worth it... But I didnt notice any difference after changing mine. I havent had any problems with it either to date, and that was almost a year ago... But I guess the orginal lasted for 14 years or so, so why change to an unknown i guess~!

Aaron,

I'm getting my money and parts together to have my timing chain set replaced. My mechanic advised me that since I'm going to have that done to also get a new timing chain dampner (a 2nd design dampner). When I showed him the pictures from my shop manual and parts catalog he basically illustrated to me how the 1st design (a 3-piece design) was basically like a nub with very little material and would likely tend to wear out very fast whereas the 2nd design is one piece and they give you a generous amount of material. Somehow or another the idea of having a 3-piece dampner would be very failure prone.

Thank goodness, they sell the gaskets and seal as a complete kit. The only two things I'll have to buy separately is the oil pan gasket and the interrupter (magnet). Since that entire section is going to be coming off anyway, I'm going to change out crankshaft positioning sensor as well.

While you're in that area, might as well do the water pump IMHO. You got alot of miles on it, and they aren't much money.


But, I know for sure somebody is going to shoot me down for saying that