Timing Chain Set Pref?

[charlief1]

Cool but where you from Jim?

 

[Jim Blackwood]

From? West by God Virginia but living in northern Kentucky.

Jim

 

[charlief1]

From? West by God Virginia but living in northern Kentucky.

Jim

Don't you mean "From West (for Gods sake) Virginia"? How the heck did you end up in Kin-tucky? lol Welcome aboard.

 

[Jim Blackwood]

Thanks Charlie, good to be here. Now about that tensioner?

Jim

 

["Reaper"]

Timing Chain Replacement

And

Timing Chain Replacement

 

[Jim Blackwood]

Thanks guys, anyone got a picture of it? Maybe I just need to go buy one and see if I can find a way to fit it in. btw Charlie, on how I got to KY, the usual way there was a woman involved.

I've got an unused "silent" chain set, so if I can use the tensioner I'll use that. Let the roller chain go to a buddy. If not I'll have to look for an undersized set.

Next task is to build a blower intake.

Jim

 

[dr_frankenstein]

Thanks guys, anyone got a picture of it? Maybe I just need to go buy one and see if I can find a way to fit it in. btw Charlie, on how I got to KY, the usual way there was a woman involved.

I've got an unused "silent" chain set, so if I can use the tensioner I'll use that. Let the roller chain go to a buddy. If not I'll have to look for an undersized set.

Next task is to build a blower intake.

Jim

what size blower you going to use?

A.j.

 

[Jim Blackwood]

An Eaton M-112 off a ford Lightning truck. The top inlet works well for an Enderlie style scoop/throttle body and the bottom flange will fit the width of the 340 intake just about right. It may be just a tad bit undersized but I'm not going for all out performance, as the engine is going in an MGB. Just a little boost on the top end to extend the rev range. I'm still debating whether or not to put an intercooler core below it this time around. I have an old heater core that's about the right size and that helps with distribution a bit, but at low boost (10.6 CR) it probably won't build very much heat so the intercooler may not do much. All that complexity for a small gain. I'll have to decide soon. I'm building for economy. (Yeah, that's why I'm putting a 340 in an MGB. Right.)

I looked in TA's catalog and they had photos of the chain tensioners, I guess there were two different ones used. Do they bolt to the block somehow? Is there a hole I need to drill and tap? I can do that if I have a way to locate it properly. What about the one with two lugs, does that go on the other side? Doesn't seem like it would do much over there.

Jim

 

[charlief1]

2 things to remember

There are 2 different V6 designs and the cams are different. The early odd fire uses a cam nose like the SBB but the even fire have all but the timing chain gear made on the cam. When GM decided to make the original 198 CID engine they tried to just cut a V8 off and go from there but the imballance of the engine caused some problems. One was the way the cam acted under load. It caused some strech (SP) issues so they reduced the distance between the crank and cam so they needed something to take up the slack. The V8 doesn't suffer from this. If you want to use a tensioner you could but I can't see a reason to.
You'd have to drill 2 holes and tap 1 on the pass side of the block to the right and up slightly of the crank center line. The 2 types of tensioners are different for sure. The later design is all in one including the bolt. The other one is 3 piece affair. The bolt goes into the block and the pad part rides on it and then the spring goes on the bolt and rides on the pad. The second hole isn't tapped and one of the tensioner spring ends go in it to allow for the tension of the spring.

 

[Jim Blackwood]

Well, I could order an undersize timing gear set, I have 5* of play or about 1/4" of slack in the chain. Maybe that would be the better solution. About double the cost of a standard double row set though.

Jim

 

[charlief1]

Well, I could order an undersize timing gear set, I have 5* of play or about 1/4" of slack in the chain. Maybe that would be the better solution. About double the cost of a standard double row set though.

Jim

To give you an idea, that's what most of us do and eliminate the tensioner all together. Much better overall because the timing is better. The other solution is to go gear drive. I'll be doing that later myself. I've already got one hidden away and finding one is a pain as well as a little pricy but no chain issues to deal with. Harder to set up, yes. Better overall at keeping things together, yes.

 

[Jim Blackwood]

Here's one:
BritishV8 Forum: Gears Drive Timing kit and Buick V6 Stage II Front Cover, suit RV8/Buick 215

Thought I'd already posted that, guess I must have just previewed it.

Jim

 

[Jim Blackwood]

I'm unhappy. All this research and then I go out and measure the bore centers with gage blocks only to find that my center-center distance is 4.332" instead of 4.335", or only .003" short. So WHY am I getting 7/16" of slop in the chain with two different new timing sets? From the info I've found so far it should be 1/4" or less. Can I trust anybody's specs? This bites! Getting the right timing set is as much of a crap shoot as trying to buy wheels and tires based on dimensions. What does it take? Buy an entire assortment of sizes and try them until one fits?? Hey, it ain't black magic, all I want is accurate information!

Jim

 

[charlief1]

Since you have the center to center measurement call some of the manufacturers and see what they can tell you. I'd bet they're suposed to be sloppy or built over seas.