Does anyone make a timing chain that isn't garbage?

Less than 1000 miles on my Cryo treated Cloyes 9 Way Billet Chain and I'm about ready to throw it in the garbage. It's lost 4 degrees in less than a 1000 miles. It was originally 107 when new but now it's at 111 on the dots in its sloppy state. Now I'm 8 degrees retarded on the stupid crank gear that's apparently stamped backwards according to the instruction sheet just to acheive a 105 installed centerline. Still not the 104 I was looking for by advancing the cam. I think the only reason I'm not certain about swapping it out is that I'm not sure a new timing chain would last any longer. At least right now I can hope this dumb thing is done stretching.

Rant off...

Try Rollmaster.

Im currently running a Rollmaster set that I brought off Rebel about 13 years ago along with an Engle cam lifter and spring set, sure its been on the shelf for some time but that garbage got my sidewinder headed 446 goin real good.... real good. cheers Reb

Re-degree the cam and please report back in another 1000 miles...

Is the crankgear that loose on the crank? Seems to be quite a gap.

Rollmaster here . Had it for years.3 diff engines

I can't remember the name of the timing set right now (might be a Rollmaster?), but I got it from Dwayne Porter (Fast68plymouth). I got the good one from him after I had a Cloyes chain that started breaking links. Found it before any damage happened. Had a long talk w/ Dwayne and he said this was common w/ those chains.

pro gear?? i think from australia really nice piece mancini sells em.

KOS...now that I think of it, I think it was a Pro Gear. The Cloyes I had was in bad shape after 2 years. The Pro Gear looked great after 5 years...that was 2 years ago.

Pro Gear in my small blocks.

ProGear in my big blocks; Rollmasters didn't hold up well.

Chains don't stretch. The pins wear.

Sounds like your pins weren't hard enough, or getting enough oil.

R.

Progear

Pro Gear

Who sells the Pro Gear sets?

We killed two of the Cloyes units this season. In their defense, they were used or ran for multiple seasons, but for what ever reason, both were toast this year. One in each car....one was super loose, the other stiffened up after removal and locked up.

Not sure what my engine build put back in....But open to suggestions as I will be watching it...

i got mine(progear) from mancini............they are the best out of any timming chain ive ever used and very reasonable

Milodon gear drive and be done with it. Your valve timing will be the same a decade from now.

And before we get any further down the road, I would love to see any VERIFIED testing where gear drives cause harmonics. I have never seen it. The only testing I could find on the web was done by a nascar team and they tested a belt drive against a chain and a 4 gear drive. The 4 gear drive may be worse than a chain.

As someone else said...........chain links don't stretch. Pins and gears wear.

Was this directed to the OP, or to my reply prior to yours?

Don't want to speak for Monte but I think he was clarifying that the side plates don't stretch or wear. So the chains don't actually stretch. The pins wear out.

progear. Bought mine at hughes.

Not sure if any of the latest comments were directed at me, but I worked in a motorcycle dealership for years, as well as racing motocross for many years and riding in the dirt for fun. I have a very good understanding of how chain & sprocket sets wear, whether they're connecting a crankshaft to a camshaft, or an output shaft to drive wheel.

Comp Cams billet 9 way adjustable timing set, still nice and tight.

If you buy Rollmaster, buy the premium set with the Iwis chain. The cheaper versions don't have the same chain. This only happened with Rollmaster was sold to JP Products

Unless there is something deleted, the only person I saw say something about a chain stretching was the OP. It was just being pointed out that chains don't actually stretch. So where there is slack, the problem is the pins or the gears, not the chain itself

where can I buy a Rollmaster set at?

I had a JP performance chain way long time ago, it lasted 3000 miles before I went into the engine for something, the chain had a lot of slack in it. Hope they are better now....

x2

I've been using the KB gear drives for years
now.. I have them on 2 other engines.. I wish
I had another to put on my 416 but I put a chain
on it

Don't forget to soak the chain in oil prior to install. I work the chain in a bath of oil and then give it at least an hour prior to install.

BTW, all chains (pins) stretch in the first few thousand miles, and then the rate of stretch should slow. That's why another member suggested to re-degree and run it.

Going one step further, at Pettis we used to boil the chains in synthetic oil for quite a while w/great results.......

It looks like I can buy a Cloyes replacement chain for $15. I'm tempted to grab one to see if the majority of the wear is in the chain or the sprockets. Even if it does arrive in time before Drag Weekend I'm not sure I would run it. There's a small part of me that thinks if I run the used chain it'll maintain cam timing better than if I installed the new chain.

Regardless, the next timing set I buy will be a Roll Master or Pro Gear with Iwis chain. Sadly, I am guessing it'll be sooner than later.

I've got to say, I've got a 'Cloyes' set and it's been in the engine for 10 years or so, probably hasn't done a heap of miles, just a cruiser with an occasional trip to the track. Last time it was apart it was dead tight, that was some time ago but I rocked the engine back and forth with a breaker bar days ago and could not feel any slop. One thing though, when it went together I manufactured a nice oiling tab to drip oil into the centre of the bottom sprocket, maybe it likes it?

Timing chain wear and stretch is determined by several things like quality, presoaking as well as the use including valve spring pressure and maximum RPM ran on each run cycle I've used Cloyes mostly and the better True Roller seemed to last quite a while in my bracket motors shifting at 7000 RPM with flat tappet cams and valve spring pressures under 350 Lbs. My old Duster motor with a solid roller cam and 680 lbs spring pressures had the best Cloyes unit offered at that time, billet gears and so on and it failed , broke, after 2000 to 4000 street miles and hundreds of runs shifting it at or above 7000 RPM in each gear that chain never showed any stretching at all when I had the motor apart twice

Stutter boxes kill chains
I always soak chains overnight then drip dry so they are not such a mess
hard to find a quality set these days
I like Progear

my last rollmaster went about 5 easy seasons and looked good when i took it out because of a rebuild. Hung it on the wall and 6mths later when i needed it all the links were stiffened up and tight. Replaced it with a pro gear which is now in the race section for sale if any sb guys need a good chain(engine came apart on dyno). I will be getting another pro gear chain for the big block build.

Had a Rollmaster last 19 years before I sold the engine. I bought it in 1994.

I just got a Comp Cams billet 9-way adjustable, It has a Rolon chain

Inspect, clean, then soak in oil. I like to goop'em up w/assembly lube too and have had good luck w/Cloyes.

Just a quick update...

I installed the new replacement chain from Cloyes tonite. For less than 20 bucks I figured why not. The new chain when installed has substantially less slack in it than the previous chain. At the 8* mark the cam is now coming in at 102* installed centerline. At the 6* mark it's back to the 105* installed centerline I had acheived previously with the 8* mark and sloppy chain. Against what should be my better judgement, I left it at the 105* installed centerline with the new chain.

Long story short, the chain has less slop. It's almost as good as a new timing set but I still didn't have luck getting to the 104* I was looking for. I'm now a couple hours older and maybe a little wiser.

For what it's worth, I soaked the new chain in oil for about 30 minutes. Tomorrow I'll hit it with some assembly lube for good measure. I'll let you guys know how it worked out at the next tear down. Thanks again for the input!