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Some members may be familiar with the project car I'm building for the Camaro Homepage (www.camarohomepage.com). In fact, this '01 has been covered in print by "Popular Hot Rodding" (2003), "Camaro Performers" (2005-2007) and an engine series in "Pontiac Enthusiast" (2010) along with being on the web at the CHpg since 2008.
Because it's been in print and on the web for so long and is also a daily driver, the car has accumulated a lot of miles for a project vehicle, a little over 50,000. Much of that mileage has been pretty brutal--road testing and many, many chassis dyno runs. For the next part of the "Tom Henry RS" project we're going to cover some service/maintenance tasks as well as some new mods. Part 5 will get posted this coming Spring.
Back in '05-'06, when I was doing the first round of engine work for the "Camaro Performers" series, I was active on another GM V6-oriented web site. Some of the members there were pretty aggressive in flaming some aspects of the project. One issue which provoked controversy was my use of a single row timing chain in the valvetrain of a mod'ed engine. I caught some flack for that from people who believed that the only thing to use in a hotted-up 3800 was a double-row chain, without one, my engine was going to blow-up in short order and I was a imbecile to ignore such an obvious fact.
Two-row chains require removal of the engine's balance shaft and I was unwilling to do that because I wanted its damping effect on idle and low-rpm engine shake. I posted to that effect was immediately flamed (some more) then branded some kind of sissy, in addition to being an idiot.
Well, 50,000 miles later I decided: why not "call the bluff" and inspect the timing chain and sprockets? I decided to take this idea farther and measure timing chain slack of my 50,000 mile chain and one out of a new Rollmaster timing set.
What'd I find?
With the chain tensioner removed, chain slack of both the old chain the new one was virtually the same, .530-in. +/- a few thousandths, so, for practical purposes, there was no chain stretch after 50,000 miles.
Using some bright lighting and a magnifier, I inspected the teeth on the cam sprocket. There was minimal wear, in fact, the little wear I could see looked more like break-in wear which burnished marks left by machining.
Bottom line: For my valvetrain configuration (206/212° duration .530 lift Comp Cam, Katech valve springs, titanium retainers, Yella Terra 1.8:1 roller rockers) and duty cycle (street-high performance, frequent dyno testing, 6200 rpm rev limit), Rollmaster, single-row chains are, clearly, quite durable. The belief that a double-row chain is required for such use is a big stinking pile of :bs:
Rollmaster chain sets are made in Australia and Rollmaster's U.S. distributor is Engine Pro (www.engineproparts.com)
The project series is at: http://www.camarohomepage.com/project/index.htm
Because it's been in print and on the web for so long and is also a daily driver, the car has accumulated a lot of miles for a project vehicle, a little over 50,000. Much of that mileage has been pretty brutal--road testing and many, many chassis dyno runs. For the next part of the "Tom Henry RS" project we're going to cover some service/maintenance tasks as well as some new mods. Part 5 will get posted this coming Spring.
Back in '05-'06, when I was doing the first round of engine work for the "Camaro Performers" series, I was active on another GM V6-oriented web site. Some of the members there were pretty aggressive in flaming some aspects of the project. One issue which provoked controversy was my use of a single row timing chain in the valvetrain of a mod'ed engine. I caught some flack for that from people who believed that the only thing to use in a hotted-up 3800 was a double-row chain, without one, my engine was going to blow-up in short order and I was a imbecile to ignore such an obvious fact.
Two-row chains require removal of the engine's balance shaft and I was unwilling to do that because I wanted its damping effect on idle and low-rpm engine shake. I posted to that effect was immediately flamed (some more) then branded some kind of sissy, in addition to being an idiot.
Well, 50,000 miles later I decided: why not "call the bluff" and inspect the timing chain and sprockets? I decided to take this idea farther and measure timing chain slack of my 50,000 mile chain and one out of a new Rollmaster timing set.
What'd I find?
With the chain tensioner removed, chain slack of both the old chain the new one was virtually the same, .530-in. +/- a few thousandths, so, for practical purposes, there was no chain stretch after 50,000 miles.
Using some bright lighting and a magnifier, I inspected the teeth on the cam sprocket. There was minimal wear, in fact, the little wear I could see looked more like break-in wear which burnished marks left by machining.
Bottom line: For my valvetrain configuration (206/212° duration .530 lift Comp Cam, Katech valve springs, titanium retainers, Yella Terra 1.8:1 roller rockers) and duty cycle (street-high performance, frequent dyno testing, 6200 rpm rev limit), Rollmaster, single-row chains are, clearly, quite durable. The belief that a double-row chain is required for such use is a big stinking pile of :bs:
Rollmaster chain sets are made in Australia and Rollmaster's U.S. distributor is Engine Pro (www.engineproparts.com)
The project series is at: http://www.camarohomepage.com/project/index.htm
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