Hi Everyone, I have everything to do a timing chain rail overhaul. I'm just wondering if you would use the new chains or keep the old ones with only 73,000 miles on them. I just don't know If I trust the newer chains that could be china knock offs. Thanks, Stacey

 

Mind you, I'm a penny pincher (well, depending on what we are talking about),,,, I would keep the old chains... But that's just me... It's a heavy question to ask of folks... If anything went wrong,,, I would feel horrible about it. But,,, at the end O the day, it's on you...

I've heard they are pretty indestructible...

 

I recently did that service and I kept the existing chains. My car had 48K miles on it. The chains are meant to last for a few hundred thousand miles as long as the oil change intervals have been met.

 

This is an awesome question - prepping to do tensioners on 3 cars in my Family, and call me very suspicious about China made parts. As of late, I've had a couple sub-par parts (coolant expansion tank and sensor) which were terrible quality from reputable vendors, so forgive me if I agree with the OP regarding trusting one of the most important parts in the car. Can anyone attest to the quality of any timing chain kits or as @Ronald Vennell stated, would it be best to keep existing chains with lower mileage?

 

If there's concern about the quality of the parts to be installed, purchase them from one of the forum sponsors, such as SNG Barratt:

https://www.sngbarratt.com/us/#!/Eng...7/15050/1/10/1

 

THAT ^^^^^^^^
Now that concern, worry and skepticism is alllllll in the air,,, spend the $300 some bucks and sleep better... And that's coming from me,,,, a penny pincher extraordinaire...

 

Not to be oppugnant (and without naming the sponsors as they rectified and replaced) but I've received BAD/defective parts new straight out of the box from a forum sponsor recently. It was a minor headache because of the minor severity of the part and the sponsor not named stood behind and rectified the situation, but something as serious as timing chains/tensioners is worth asking. A broken timing set due to quality issues cannot be fixed by just sending a replacement, and unfortunately with the various chinese made so called "OEM SPEC" parts floating around that even all forum sponsors sell, its a good question.

 

^^ Another good reason for keeping your original timing chains if they appear to be undamaged....

 

I just re-used the original chains too. They appeared to be perfectly fine and still going at 122K miles. But my guides were still intact with only hairline cracks in the plastic. If you take it apart and find that your guides have crumbled and the chains have made metal-on-metal contact, then I'd probably be inclined to order new chains at that point.

 

Installed new guides and tensioners on the XKR and put in the new radiator. 12 hours of nonstop fun. I bought the cam lock kit and the crank pulley kit and used neither. After taking the crank bolt off my lower pulley slid right off. She runs quiet and all is good.

 

Slid right oft??? Well I'll be a monkeys UNCLE!!!
Great work!!! Are you still soar?

 

Slept on a heating pad all night. Good as gold!

 

Indeed, I've done it a couple of times now and neither slid right off. Both times were a fight that would inspire a Klingon opera.