The chain will get quite noisey before it fails so you do have warning. Also,
the most common failure mechanism is the chain stretches to the point that it
wears the teeth on the gears excessively which allows the chain to jump timing.
When this happens, most often when you go to start the engine, the engine just
won't run. Somone correct me if I am wrong but as far as I know the 3.9/5.2/5.9
are not interference engines so there will be no danger of crashing valves into
pistons.
Also, you can check for excessive wear without taking the engine apart, I
detailed that in a previous post.
FWIW, I have never seen a broken timing chain on an overhead valve V engine.
Certainly lots of jumped chains but never one that actually boke. Quite sure
it's happened but I would say it's pretty rare.
Dave Clement
99 SLT+ CC 4x4
In article <421D47B7.9010001@insightbb.com>, barrysuperhawk@insightbb.com
(Barry Oliver) writes:
>
>
> So far, I have 2 votes for changing it, and three against [until it
> breaks] Is a 5.2 an interferance motor? If I wait til it breaks am I
> risking more than stranded? I remember a vague thread from long ago
> about swapping to gears, but I am not motivated enough to search for it
> right now...
>
>
> Rick Barnes wrote:
> > 130,000 on my original timing chain on my 5.2 and no sign of any excessive
> > wear.
> >
> > Rascal
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: owner-dakota-truck@bent.twistedbits.net
> > [mailto:owner-dakota-truck@bent.twistedbits.net] On Behalf Of Josh Battles
> > Sent: Monday, February 21, 2005 12:05 PM
> > To: dakota-truck-moderator@bent.twistedbits.net
> > Subject: Re: DML: 100k = timing chain?
> >
> >
> > B1LLYW@aol.com wrote:
> >
> >
> >>In a message dated 2/21/2005 7:55:52 AM Eastern Standard Time,
> >>david.clement@verizon.net writes:
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>>My 89 3.9 had 256,000 miles on it on the orignal timing chain when I sold
> >>>the
> >>>truck.
> >>
> >>
> >>Sheer and unadulterated luck.
> >>
> >>Bill White - KRC Performance
> >
> >
> > I've got 73k HARD miles on my little V6 and it's still on the original
> > stock timing chain. I don't get any noise from it at all.
> >
>
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Tue Mar 01 2005 - 10:04:32 EST