I recently pulled my motor apart for a what I believe is its first rebuild. While taking the motor apart I noticed something that seemed odd. the camshaft sprocket has a plastic type substance that was between the teeth. It looks like the plastic was molded to the metal sprocket. Was this to quite the chain? and what years did they do this? The other reason for asking is that I had a few pieces of what looked like plastic in the oil pickup filter and in the bottom of the oil pan.
Thanks Scott
The plastic is indeed to help quiet the chain... Both GM and Ford used this feature to help the "silent chain" be silent. I can't recall about Dodge. Far from being odd, this was the norm.
"Jim Warman" wrote in news:kZQQe.219039$HI.60678 @edtnps84:
Far from the norm was that his survived this long. They used give up at about 60,000 miles.
I can't vouch for that part....old technology motors fell victim to our weather extremes with alarming regularity.... but I have seen many of these timing chains live long and healthy lives.
Important to remember.... we don't all live in the same climate/demographic/geographic conditions... all of these weigh heavily on performance and longevity of various assemblies. My sons 94 half ton still has, AFAIK. the original timing chain at 230,000 km
news:kZQQe.219039$HI.60678
The car has 147k miles in Dallas weather. I'd say that wasn't too bad.
Thanks Scott
Other people have made some good comments about this, but I'll make a few more.
1.Yes, the plastic/nylon was put in there to make it quiet, but I've yet to have anybody POSITIVELY tell the difference between the metal and the plastic timing set by putting their ear to it. There really is no difference in noise between the two. I guess the smart company (at that time) was Dodge for staying away from the plastic parts.no worries. the motor is getting treated to a 331 stroker kit. with all the goodies. New heads will have to wait. Gotta hate it when babies are due in the middle of fun projects.
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