Who makes the best timing chain?

[trmnatr]

I prefer Rollmaster (Crane Cam's billet set) or SA Gear Ultimate Adjustable Billet Set with adjustable cam gear (Like a Jesel cam gear)

Be carefull as Cloyes came out with a copy of the SA Gear however since the cam gear is adjustable, the crank gear is NOT adjustable on the SA unit but is adjustable on the Cloyes

You can get the SA unit from Erson, Comp Cam's, and Lunati.

[Dwight Southerland]

Rollmaster also makes vernier adjustable timing sets.

[Greg Reimer 7376]

With the valve spring pressures and the lobe events that the traditional set ups have been seeing in recent years, I guess it's inevitible that a new chain set would be necessary. Who sells them, what are the part numbers?

[Ed Wright]

I got the one I have from Scoggin Dicky in Lubbock, TX.

[Mike Taylor 3601]

Alot of cams are more aggressive,but the problem is the valve springs,it is'nt high spring pressures causing problems,it is too weak of springs that stretches your chain.
When pressure is high enough,once cam is rotating it turns easily,because you have one lobe pushing and one lobe pulling,so to speak,when spring pressure is too weak,lifters won't stay on lobes and you loose the smooth rotation and puts alot more strain on the chain.
If you don't believe me adjust one rocker on high spring pressure engine and try to rotate engine,every rocker you adjust it gets easier,when all are set does'nt take very much to rotate engine,the faster it turns the easier it gets.
As example we use at least 275lbs on sbc and at least 325 on bbc rollers this is on just common bracket engines not that aggressive of lobes.

Mike Taylor 3601

[Alan Roehrich]

We've had great life out of our Cloyes sets on the stocker engines. Never a problem at all. We typically get several hundred passes out of them, and only replace them out of guilt. We use the set that has the 6 bolts on the cam gear to allow easy adjustment.

Nothing wrong with Rollmaster sets, either, good quality pieces.

If you're killing a Cloyes race set with heat treated steel gears, you have something really bad going on.

By the way, Kevin Cradduck, my partner, and the guy who runs NitroPlate, is a patent holding timing chain engineer. He'll tell you in a heart beat that chains do not stretch, the gears wear. If you ever saw what they use to pre-stretch a timing chain, you'd be pretty convinced that your engine simply won't stretch a chain.

Usually when you have a timing set go away in a very short period of time, if it is a real race set with a good roller chain and heat treated steel gears, you have some serious harmonics that are doing it. At that point, the timing set is merely the fuse in the circuit, it gives up before something else breaks.

[Glenn Briglio]

Alan is correct the chain doesnt stretch. Did you check the alignment of cam and crank gear? That can wear gears quickly.