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Is this bad?

killi6

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Continuing breakdown of my '74 318. LOL :headbang:
 

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I've seen worse , but I'm sure you're gonna trash that one , Right!!

You mean the timing set? Definitely. I know now where all the little bits of plastic in the oil pan came from... didn't realize they had plastic cam sprockets in these motors...
 
The tensioner is plastic, and I dont see it in the pics that are provided.
 
No tensioner on older engines and the plastic coating on the teeth on the cam sprocket is what makes the timing chain 'silent'.......
 
Yup , I just took apart My 68 383 motor with what I believe to have 136k on it. Still had nylon silent cam gear in it with All the teeth. Also had original Mopar oil pump on it, Steel shim head gaskets Etc. A real time capsule.
 
No tensioner on older engines and the plastic coating on the teeth on the cam sprocket is what makes the timing chain 'silent'.......

I suppose that's one way to reduce engine noise... I don't care for the little bits of plastic sprinkled everywhere in the motor, though. The car only has about 70k miles on it.
 
Those plastic timing gears are horrible and are a curse upon the MoPar name! They may have been a good idea at the time to keep things quiet but after a few decades of being heat cycled/doused in oil they become brittle and break apart into a million little pieces that end up in the bottom of your oil pan and you have a handful of bent pushrods/valves. Take that crap off and install a quality double roller timing set! Back a few years ago I had a 318 with over 320,000 miles on the stock timing gear...then one night it let go luckily in my driveway. Upon teardown i could take the timing chain off without removiing anything, that was how stretched out it was!
 
a new timing set is definitely in my parts list for the rebuild... ever since I got the fuel pump off and saw how loose the chain was just hanging there, actually...
 
"Racketa - Racketa"

Can't speak for the Ford contingent but lots of the smaller GM cars in the mid '60's had the plastic sprocket teeth too. Ever hear one of those 6 cyl in a Skylark or Cutlass for instance that sounded like a cross between a sewing machine and bad tappets at idle?

Helped more than one friend change those puppies out.
 
Those plastic bits end up in the oil pickup! Shake it and it will sound like a percussion instrument. Add a little bossa nova and you can do the cha cha!

I pulled a BBC apart that had the nylon tooth sprocket and I found some of the crank cross drilled holes to the rods packed full of plastic. Amazing how it got that far.
 
Can't speak for the Ford contingent but lots of the smaller GM cars in the mid '60's had the plastic sprocket teeth too. Ever hear one of those 6 cyl in a Skylark or Cutlass for instance that sounded like a cross between a sewing machine and bad tappets at idle?

Helped more than one friend change those puppies out.

They didn't quit after the sixties. The venerable GM 3.8 V-6, one of the better motors to come from the General, used them throughout it's life. Common for poorly maintained ones to chow down on the cam sprocket, prompting a lot of "GM junk" claims when if people just changed the damn oil life would be good.
 
Ford had the same problem with plastic or nylon covered timing chain sprocket teeth. Those little bits of plastic start to wear off and can get into the oil pump. Big problems then. I had the sprockets and chain changed out on my 72 Lincoln Mk IV when I found out about that. There were also problems with valve guide seals breaking up, I saw that when I changed cylinder heads. It was a great way to quiet down an engine for awhile, but long term, not so good. The Big Three didn't care back then, it was just part of their planned obsolescence. They knew the car would be out of warranty by the time the problem manifested itself. Later they went to rubber belts on smaller engines. That worked well for about 60,000 miles too but definitely need to be changed when recommended.

As far as the timing chain slack, like already said, I've seen worse. It seems that just about as soon as you start up an engine with a new timing chain set it will stretch some.
 
The tensioner is plastic, and I dont see it in the pics that are provided.

318's didn't have tensioners until the magnum series engines in the 90's and up. same for 360's and 239's. The magnums also have a roller cam and pedestal mount rockers, where the older LA engines have a flat tappet cam with rocker shafts.
 
Also... a close-up shot of some of the cam lobes... I'm no expert, but it doesn't look good to me, either. Good thing I was planning to replace it anyway.

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