I have a 511 street/strip deal and using the ProGear chain/gears. What is your opinion on the oil slinger in a street/strip package? Some times i use them and some times i dont. I have not seen any issues without. Just thought i would get some opinions on this topic before i put the new billet cover on. Thanks

Use it regardless

It is an absolutely useless part. Leave it off.

The factory don't put parts in any part of the car that are not needed, do they
It helps direct slash oil onto the timing chain, doesn't it

Pure dee baloney sauce

I am going to agree with the useless thing. There are 10's of millions of chevy (and others for that mater) that don't use them.

However I alway use it if I have it.

All the guys running gear drives cannot use them, as the slinger will contact the idler. I have seen no issues NOT running the slinger in my combo, but if you can run it with your timing set, why not throw it on there.

I thought the purpose was to keep oil away from the front seal. Anyway, it rubbed on my aluminum cover - even after I trimmed the lip off. So its gone.

I can see its total purpose on a high milage car. My motors rarely see 10,000 miles before i tear them done and build something else. The slinger i just removed was bubbing on the chain, but only on one half of the slinger. Never seen this. It looks as if it was installed cocked in there and that would be difficult with the ATI damper pressed against it. Not sure what was going on there, but i think i might leave the slinger out this time.

I don't use them.

Only thing i can figure is the cam had an extra amount of forward movement using a factory chain cover, but then again, why would it only rub half of the slinger? I will be installing one of Andys billet chain covers. Anyone know if Andys covers come with seal and gaskets?

I’m 90% sure I forgot to put it back on one time, I was worried about the front seal leaking but I don’t recall any problems Mine looks worse than the one you got there, I think it happens when the damper is installed with the crank bolt and the damper doesn’t clamp down tight/fully seated

Could be. The dampener was almost touching the stock cover on the last install. I think Andys cover is much thicker and damper may touch this time. I will leave the slinger out just in case.

Just like drip tabs and the idiotic bolt with a hole in it, the slinger does NOTHING. It was a bean counters answer to other issues.

Throw that [censored] in the garbage. All of it. If you want more oil on the timing set, drill a hole in the cam retaining plate and go.

I pulled my small block down with a few thousand miles on it a couple of years ago and the chain was thrashed. I had forgotten to put a drilled bolt into the normal spot, I also didn't put a slinger on there but I didn't normally run one anyways. So when I went back together with it I drilled the bolt, put the drip thing on, and used a slinger to cover all of the bases. I ran it several more years and another several thousand miles and a good amount of racing. When I changed cams the chain was in the best shape it had ever been in during a teardown. So I will buy into at least one of those making a difference.

I'm pretty sure the main purpose of the slinger is to make sure oil from the pan does not flood the timing cover seal under really hard sudden stops
The newer dual lip seals help a bunch also, unlike the OEM single lip seals

And what would those "issues" be? Since one job of a bean counter is to keep track of expenses, why install a ten-cent part in millions of applications that eventually adds up to tens of thousands of dollars?

i have pulled apart original engines that didn't have it, small and big block alike, with no leakage from the front seal, so who knows ?
i have also forgot to install them in a few engine builds, and there were no cover leaks as well.
if i had one, and the front cover fit using it, i would install it.
just my life experience.
your mileage will vary.

They wanted to keep oil leaks down. It was a cheap, easy way to do it. The bolt and the drip tab do nothing. Oil weeping out of a bolt hole doesn’t put enough oil on the timing set to matter.

Again, warranty money.

I always install an oil slinger if it is available and if it fits. It sometimes doesn't fit with performance parts. Probably not necessary on a performance engine but I'd always use one on a street rebuild.