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what is your preferred timing chain? do you think gears are OK for 6.5L?

We did all of our vehicles after 150,000 miles or more. Everything after 150,000 miles was at the limit as far as specs went.

At 500,000 miles you can just about take the chain off without touching the gears.

The OEM sets don't seem to hold up as well as the aftermarket Cloyes. But then I don't really know that as we have never torn them down that far again. I did timing chain,gears and Fluidampers in everything but the 94 so far sometime after 150,000 miles and all of them were past or at the edge of the 1/2" spec.

To me 1/2" of slop is a lot and the new chains were considerably tighter. I can't say how they are holding up.

I ran the 89 for 500,000 miles without touching it. Not something I would recomend.
 
When i rebuilt my 6.5 i used cloyes. The engine was said to have 90k on it before i got to it. The chain was loose. I also use cloyes on all my builds. Good priced for a product thats pretty well know and ive had good luck with so far.
 
The Cloyes I bought from RA was a china job. Not that this makes it automatically inferior, the jury is still out on the one in service now..

Since the chain sees a lot of load, heat, and minimal lubrication it suffers big time. In some high perf gassers I've actually 'orficed' 2 of the 3 front oil galley plugs and gave the timing set a constant oil bath.

In terms of the chain affecting timing, think of the minuscule amount we have to move our IP's to get a dramatic change in the attitude of the engine.... :agreed:
 
3500GMC said:
I remember the dreaded NYLON cam gears on the GM small blocks of old.. That was a mess.
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At least they never left you questioning for long whether your timing set was starting to go bad...:hihi:
And the pieces were too big to go through the pickup screen...:D
 
I follwed Matuvas link to steel soliders. all and all a good article, numerous opinions, some good, some bad. a bad one was written by someone who was arguing against gears. they used an A1 customs article as a source for why to not use gears. that article was right before "why intercooling is bad" :) gonna factor that guys comment out of that thread. :D

called a diesel shop in OK, he never revealed his position on the chain/vs gears, but did give praise to fluid type dampers.
 
I found my pic of what is going in my build..... got it from Kennedy...400$ and I coated it also..

attachment.php
 
thanks for the picture Trailrider!

3500GMC, on your comment about lack of lube, would installing a FS2500 bypass filter that returns oil to the filler neck enough to eliminate the need to orfice the plugs?

I am wondering about just doing squirts and glows for now, and checking and adjusting timing and leaving the chain alone for now. Stuff is more spendy that I realized, and I need some diesel money!

she has shown no signs of overheating so far owning it, and there has been an 18K load here and there at 70-80 degrees ambient. has a new copper radiator installed by PO. new hoses too, but just in case the t-stat is aftermarket, I do have a delco on order from the local dealer. we keyed the VIN into the system, and only one t-stat came back, os that is good news! :)

so basically, I think I will wait to tear the front of the motor apart.

This will also give me time to earn some $ and throw some guages on, so I can monitor the changes each upgrade brings.

if anyone who has played with their timing sets, gear or chain, and has problems, make sure and respond to this thread! I will probably wait till after harvest to do it.

thanks for all the responses everyone!
 
oh yeah! I can believe that guy even referenced that shit.

need to find the a-team of computer hackers to hack his computer and make it self destruct. attach viruses to the website, anything to discourage use.
 
I like the gears. I think it keeps timing more accurate over the range of rpm, load, fuel rate, compression braking all being variable for a truck. For Heath's land speed truck or a marine motor that would have a steadier load chain could suffice with ip making more long term adjustments. Proving any hp difference between the two would be extremely hard i would think. Might could only prove with a drag race motor maybe???

I also like the idea of a fluid dampened to absorb any extra harmonics.

Having a loose chain slack possibly kinda jerking somewhat at times I can imagine being somewhat hard on mechanisms too. but not transmitting harmonics as bad. The jerks would take a long time to fatigue damage and harmonics tend to act faster I think???

If I were rich I'd love to see a gear set lightened up with holes and coated.

What do y'all think about that as thoughts?
 
With cnc or a divider head it would be easy to keep holes symmetrical and I think that would keep balance close enough. Though I don't know if holes would cause hydrodynamic issues with oil - doubt it???
 
If you had the time and tools... "trailrider"... I would be curious to see your engine degree'd with the gear drive timing set vs. the chain drive, I never thought to do it or at that point really cared when I was assembling my engine to check the difference between the 2 timing sets. The reason being... After the conversation's I've had with Bill, He really despises the gear drives and claims they have + 4* advance machined into them and claims they wont work right with his cams... but says to use factory type timing gears and chain.

Now, I've since chatted with John Kennedy (he very obviously has NO love for Heath) and or his cams... but, told me that their is only about + 2* advance machined into the gear drives.

The buddy of mine that I got my gear drive set from said his experience was a more noticeable / sensitive timing with the injection pump and slightly better mileage..

I have a hard time believing that the gear drives cause any catastrophic failures to these engines, I do however believe that those failures are particular to the inferior "GM castings"

Mike
 
Mike, I did think about doing it, I don't have the wheels anymore, but I know someone that does and could have done it... I didn't think it was really necessary, without going through a lot of trouble, there is not a easy way to change anything, no different cuts for changing the timing on the gears.....

Mike, when are you going to have yours running???
 
sctrailrider said:
Mike, I did think about doing it, I don't have the wheels anymore, but I know someone that does and could have done it... I didn't think it was really necessary, without going through a lot of trouble, there is not a easy way to change anything, no different cuts for changing the timing on the gears.....

Mike, when are you going to have yours running???
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I think the advance machined into the DSG gear sets would most likely be in the key way on the crank gear. As far as having mine running... It's so close, I actually thought about working on it today. I just got really burned out on it, it's not far off yet still soo much to do. I've been needing it pretty bad lately, so I will be getting back at it.
 
sctrailrider, how is the gear drive holding up?

another couple of questions:

Who all sells gear drives? if just Kennedy and DSG, who makes what for who? I assume Kennedy re-sells the DSG sets?

also, what scenarios of 6.5L carnage could destroy or otherwise harm a gear drive set from being un-usable in a new engine?

thanks folks!
 
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