In the process of putting my hyd roller in an was wondering how much slack should there be in the timing chain? I can move it quite a bit on either side. It is not very old and was a decent piece. Has maybe 5000 miles on it.

Should I replace it with a better double roller chain to be safe?

Also should I go to a chain that has the bushings to adjust/fine tune the cam degreeing?

Also should I go to a chain that has the bushings to adjust/fine tune the cam degreeing?
Just get a bushing kit and the CORRECT size drill bit it requires. Also a cam bolt retainer tab. This has the little ears you bend over against the bolt heads to keep them from loosening. But more importantly it keeps the bushing from falling out of the cam gear.

your going to have a little slack in a chain even after a few hundred mile. Don't worry about it. Just check your new cam when you put it in an fix your timming as needed. like von said.

You are using a GenVI style chain set, correct? The factory timing set fits lose to start with. I contacted Cloyes direct to talk about what to do. You can look into my other posts for further info, but bascially, I was told by CLoyes that they make the GenVI sets for GM and deliberately make them loose. FOr comparison, I dropped in a MrkIV cam and used but still very tight CLoyes 9-3110 timing set into my align honed 454 block and it fit real tight with almost no slack. Cloyes recommended for me to get the stock length true roller 9-3149 (GenVI set), it is machined a lot tighter than the stock set. The difference is in the crank gear sizing.

I have the regular Gen IV cam and gears. The last guy put alen bolts in the cam. I'll swap them out for the bolts.

How does the bushing work if the other three bolts are not slotted?

If you make a drasitic bushing change sometimes you have to open the bolt holes to get the movement.

I have the regular Gen IV cam and gears. The last guy put alen bolts in the cam. I'll swap them out for the bolts.

How does the bushing work if the other three bolts are not slotted?
You drill out all 4 holes in the cam gear, pin hole (where bushing will go) and 3 bolt holes. The gear self-centers on the cam, so the bushing selection is for different offsets of the cam pin within the bushing hole. This rotates the cam position in relation to the gear. The larger bolt holes allow the bolt position to move within the hole. The instructions with the bushing kits are pretty clear but you do need to have a good understanding of how to degree a cam.

If you can move it more then 3/8" of an inch by pushing it to the side the set is to loose. I would say the block has been line honed. You need to get a line hone timing chain set.

Its never been line honed or bored in the mains. I'll see by measuring how loose it is.

Cloyes part #9-3110 for MrkIV motors. I have this on the line honed 402 motor and also tried it on the 454 motor that I measured at .0045 short crank/cam centers. It fits real tight in both with almost no movement side to side.

Does that Cloyes number use a thrust plate/bearing?

I all ready have the thrust bearing. Can I use it with my chain or does it have to be a set designed especially for the bearing and cam button.

That part number comes up as a Comp number at Jegs.

I'm looking at Crane 270-13992-1 at Jegs. It has the bearing with it and it made for that.

What Cloyes would you guys reccomend?

I would just get a whole new timing set at this point. The Crane one you picked will work, but if you are worried about cam bushings why don't you get one that's more adjustable. I run the cloyes 9-3510tx-9 in my motor.

Does that Cloyes accept a thrust bearing? Not a bad price.

The 9-3110 does not have the thrust bearing. My 402 block was machined to accept a hardened wear plate. The timing sets with a thrust bearing are machined different. You can also correct a worn thrust surface by machining it to accept a wearplate (off the top of my head I forget the thickness - it's either .030 or .060). You can not use the wear plate with a std cam gear, it ends up off center to the crank gear. The one thing I do not like with a thrust bearing is using it without indexing the cam thrust area. Another of those areas where you need to have an exact flat/square surface to have the bearing live correct. What I have seen done before is to apply some blue die to the thrust area, attach a cam gear to the cam, spin the cam gear and check for contact - it needs to be dead flat for the bearing to last. Needless to say, this area should be square in all applications. To use a wear plate with an unmachined block, you just take you cam gear to the machine shop and have it machined down the thickness of the wearplate.

1/4" of slop= .002 to .004" line hone set
5/16" of slop = .004 to 006" line hone set
3/8" of slop = .006 to .008" line hone set
1/2" of slop = .008 to .010" line hone set

Depending on how much slop you got the following is what Rollmaster recommends to fix it.

The Cloyes one that I use has a thrust bearing included.