Ok so my car still runs a gear drive instead of timing chain. I liked the whiny noise it made back in the day. So as I am starting to make progress on parts, I’m starting to wonder are these still relevant. I mean I remeber when c&l mass airs was a big name and now they are considered junk, and I guess obsolete since I don’t really see their name anywhere. That just went off track sorry, Point is are gear drives still decent or should I swap to a timing chain now that my motor will be making more power once all is said and done!
I was always told that gear drives were never relevant... something to do with harmonics.
C'n'L got a bad rap thru internet myths.
First thing my tuner asked was "you don't have a ProM do you?" when I told him no, have a C'n'L I was waiting for the lecture and was quite surprised when he was happy and went into a discussion about how the C'n'L is so much better to work with due to no 3rd party electronics. Went on to explain it in detail, but, over my head. He said if it's not Ford or C'n'L he wont touch it... Now, I'm not a tuner, but, cars come from all over the country to this guy, and he's got a bunch of 2000+hp vette's from filthy rich Saudis in his shop, so, I'm guessing he knows something.
Gear drives were relevant in the 60's and 70's when timing chains were crap. The old chains were prone to stretching, and when it came to advancing/retarding the cam, required that you drill the big gear, and use a offset bushing to move the cam one way, or the other. A real pain in the ass. Now there are billet sprockets , with multi-indexed crank gears, that make degreeing the cam way easier. High strength, true roller, double row timing chains that don't stretch at high rpm and allow cam timing to change with it.
Gear drives have always had a bad rap,...as they induce bad harmonics as a side effect. They do this because a chain acts as a damper to isolate those bad harmonics.
Now, for all but the more serious effort race cars, a chain will be more than sufficient. A more dedicated effort race build usually gets a belt.