so most people go ahead and knock out the timing chain set when they work on their plenum. however, i don't think i will have the time or the money to buy the timing chain set when i do the plenum. will it be an issue to do the timing chain later down the road?

obviously it would be better to knock it out at once but i don't really see that happening as of RIGHT this moment.

should i wait til i have the money to get the timing chain and then do it all, or just do what i can for now? how big of a project is replacing the timing chain? do i have to remove the intake to get the timing chain off? tia

 

timing chain is easy when doing the water pump! and no the intake doesnt have to be removed.

i did my water pump timing chain and oil pan gasket all together, the oil pan was a PITA!! but timing chain was a breeze, i got the cloyes double roller, the price on it wasnt to bad at all.

what is you were wanting to get for yours?

 

i didnt do my timing chain when i did my plenum (203K)....but plan to do so soon.

 

thanks big red.

i was looking at cloyes as well but there was so many options on the cloyes. good to know what you got so i can check it out and see if that is what my truck needs. i was thinking about the water pump too. maybe that will be my project after the plenum

 

not to highjack...

BigRed, is it nessesary to align the motor TDC, or can i just put the new chain on the same way the old one was on? (obvious have the punch marks and links ligned up the same way) And arent the gears on keyweights, so they go on one way anyways.

 

yeah, you have to take the water pump off to do it, so if you are gonna wait and do the water pump later thats when i would do the timing chain if you have too.

obviously if you could just do everything at once and strip down the entire front and top of the engine that would be the best to do anything. but i understand budget constraints, i hope to get my plenum done sometime in the next month of so, but will probably ahve to wait til july.

when i did my timing chain i did some research and had found cloyes to be what everyone was recommending at that time, it may have changed that was 2yrs ago. but the double roller went in easy, and ahvent had any issues at all. i thought about setting the timing back a few degress but didnt understand all of that, and have heard different things i didnt mess with anything just stuck with stock.

 

i went with a jp performance timing chain very very nice

 

i didnt worry about that, i took out the old one and imediatly put the new one one just like it was, i didnt move anything. but with the way the gears are on these engine (at the least the 5.9, but i dont think the 5.2 is different) you really cant move the timing unless its intentional, but also just to make sure i did use chalk to mark the way everything lined up but again didnt have an issue.

 

I've done a timing chain before, but it was on my 93 Nissan 4x4, and my boss had me do TDC and all that because he wanted me to learn it....i just dont feel like doing it this time lol..........if i keep my truck.........

 

i remember with my stratus, which had a timing belt, TDC was a big issue, but it was an overhead cam. it was a giant pain to get right. but like 95ram said there are the key holes on the gears, this isnt an issue with our magnums.