Timing Chain Life

[JohnnyG]

As far as I know mine still has the nylon gear in it at 265k/37 years old.. Its weird to feel like I have the most reliable engine in history and a ticking time bomb at the same time..

Nah, it'll pass 300,000 pretty well. Saw that happen. About 400,000 is pushing it though, why not do a preemptive change?
BTW, my nephew was just assigned to Warner Robbins. Msgt teaching coms.

 

[qvalff8]

My 2000 Eurovan has 267k miles and is on the original chains and guides. Lots of vr6s have timing chain guide issues (cracked and broken plastic), but the chains are usually still fine. I do occasionally hear about chains that ruptured and bent valves, but those are few. It may be that the later 24v dohc are more susceptible to broken chains but who knows. In any case, noisy timing chains can last a long time (mine started having a subtle grinding sound coming from the chain area at about 60k, almost 20 years ago. I've been meaning to fix it when the transmission goes out, but that hasn't happened yet...