Timing Chain

krazykuda said

I disagree...

If it's a virgin 273/318 with the facory nylon tooth timing gear and chain, the first thing to do is replace it with a double roller of any kind, preferably a true roller double roller...

The stock factory chains are junk, the nylon gets hard and chips off the teeth, making the chain loose and in some cases can jump a tooth...

My first 318 barracuda had 84 k original miles and when I replaced the stock chain and gears with a double roller and increased mileage by 2 MPG....

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Hey disagree all you want, I don’t care.

But if I got a sub 100k mile 318, and it ran decent, the timing chain still wouldn’t be on my top ten list of things to check/worry about. It would definitely be on my list because you’re right, the original nylon coated timing gears are lame. But unless it presented with an actual timing issue, it still wouldn’t be my first concern. Obviously if it did present with a timing issue that would be one of the first things I checked after the distributor.

And realistically, how many of those original timing gears are out there anyway? I know that they are out there, but sub 100k original mile 318 engines aren’t something you see everyday. Hell even some of those have probably had timing chains replaced.