5 cyl interference

[cobram at juno.com]

JanDebL at aol.com writes:

> should design a camshaft drive that doesn't fail instead of the 
> current belt design that looks like it was stolen from a sewing
machine.  

Oh, they have them.  Mercedes has always used the tried and true chain
driven cam system, and their engines rev pretty high and perform pretty
well too.  The only "problem" they ever had was when they went to the
single row chain in the early V8 380 engines-which they corrected for
free by replacing with a double row setup.  The single row chain STILL
lasts about 100K miles though.  
There are kits that replace GM style V8 chain/sprocket setups with solid
gearing,  very simple systems, one gear on top, one on bottom and two in
the middle-chain eliminated.
With the new alloys and space age polymers out there, it is rather
surprising (and dissapointing) that all the less engineering/maintenance
intensive systems are not put into production cars.  I guess their
rational is that they only have to worry about the new car purchaser, and
his warranty service.  After warranties expire,  timing belt replacements
(and damage thereafter) becomes a cash cow to keep the dealers service
dept in the black.  So why bother?

BCNU,
Cobram at Juno.Com
http://www.geocities.com/MotorCity/Flats/1469/

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