I pulled my timing chain cover on my 440 block due to a poor sealant job on my part. I am questioning the slop or looseness on the timing chain. I am measuring 3/8" to 1/2" on both sides. I need to find out what I should have.

Thanks

On a new chain ... very little to no slop.

go read this:

http://www.romac.com.au/Tunnel_Bores.html

Attached are the tolerances from a factory service manual. However, if there's any appreciable slop, now would be the time to change it.

Thanks for for teh response

So How do you exactly measure timing chain slop

- do I align the timing marks on the sprocket, when I do this I have a tight chain on the right side and loose on the left

- when there is no alignment I have the slop as I posted

thanks

slop is slop - whether the marks are lined up or not !!

First of all, are you turning the cam or the crank to move things? Always turn the crank - clockwise. Doing this, the slop will always be on the left side.

thanks for the insight, yes I am turning on the crank and agree "slop is slop".

I will be ordering a new gear set and chain today form the 440 source (most likely)

I agree with doing it now, everything is off and ready to be reassembled. I was not sure because the gears are in nice shape and was looking at the romac article above, when I went looking for these chains that compensate for the slop low and behold I cannot find them and read a tread that says Mr.Gasket bought the company and they no longer exist. I did internt search and there is all kinds of varying info for how to measure - thus my uncertainty.

Bottom line is new parts and eliminate the questioning. The risk is the $120 investment.

thanks

What Stanton said, A good chain will have little/no play & a bad or worn one can easily have more movement than the advance/retard bushings will give you. I bought one from Mancini years ago & it had a ton of slop , their house brand. Yeah might as well get a top quality set in there now while it's open. With the dampener slit on 10 BTDC then I put a dial indicator on the cam gear chain anywhere just to detect movement then move the crank CCW a hair to tighten up the pass side of the chain to 15 BTDC for easy math then zero the dial then turn it slowly CW & see how many degrees on the harmonic dampener I get before the cam gear starts to move & that's how much potential (timing) spark scatter degrees/cam retard I have with that particular timing chain set

There is no "oversize chain". The top sprocket is what is made oversize.

I have used the 440 source 3-bolt timing sets with 9-way lower sprocket, and they seem to be really nice units. The chain was nice and tight when I installed it on my 440, and on my 400 stroker that had the mains bored for new caps, I used the 0.005" shorter "gold" timing chain. I don't see it listed on the site anymore?