Do any of you guys use the timing chain sets with the torrington bearing? Are they reliable? I have heard rumors of failures but I cant seem to find anyone that this has actually happened to. I was just wondering if anyone has any firsthand experience with this. Thanks,
Doc

Doc,

I have not seen any of the thrust bearings fail, but have seen several roller cam buttons in pieces over the years. Dont know what type of engine you are working on, but if its a small block, they just dont have problems in that area and the roller thrust would just be one more thing to possibly fail. On a Big Block, which is known for problems, I would go ahead and use it.

We use all cloyes Hex-A-Just on all our small block and big block engines we build and have not had a issues with the torrington bearing.


But we did have an engine come in the shop that some one had the torringyon bearing in backward and it did a lot of damage to the front of the block.

Bill and Carl,
This is a Dart Little M block with a solid roller cam. I debated about the torrington bearing vs. a thrust washer and decided to go with the torrington. This was before I heard stories about them letting go and needle bearings getting in the oil pump, etc. I want to use somthing to prevent backward walk of the cam in the block. I have a Cloyes Billet Aluminum timing chain cover with the built in button to prevent forward walk.
Doc

never had the torrington bearing let go used them many times

Mike(Wolfplace),
Maybe you could chime in on this one.Your opinion would be very much appreciated.Thanks,
Andy

http://www.chevelles.com/forum/ultimatebb.php/topic/4/23131.html#000001

TWC,
So do you think that the cover was responsible? I thought that the concensus was that the cam bolts backed out.

Doc

Hey all,

I'm looking at one of Summit's Block Protector Kits for SBC, PN# SUM-G1790. I assume this is something along the lines of what you are talking about in this thread.

Does anyone know if the block requires machining with this setup? All it says in the Summit catalog is 'Some machining may be required on some applications.' Are they talking about the block or timing chain assembly? Are they mostly the same is there different or better brands?

Any information or input is greatly appreciated!

I don't think the bolts backed out but we will never know. We now have a solid thrust baring machined to the correct tolerance and a true roller billet timing set.

In theory, a roller cam should have less rearward thrust than a flat tappet. When I first assembled the 408 motor, I installed drilled out plugs in the cam oil galleries to bleed off a little oil to the thrust area. Just took the motor apart for a cam install, granted motor only had about 500 miles on it, but the Cloyes cam gear looked like a just took it out of the box. I just installed a hyd roller in the motor and used a Nylon button. I know it doesn't really work this way, but the CLoyes double roller is laterally so stiff, that there was virtually no cam movement in/out of the block even without a button.

As far as running a torrington, the only times I have seen catastrophic failure, the thrust area was in poor condition in the first place.

As many of the high end experienced guys on this site have said ... There is nothing wrong with running the torrington thrust bearing or a Cloyes Hex A just ... As long as they are installed properly . thats all it takes

ttt

Originally posted by Racerdoc:
Mike(Wolfplace),
Maybe you could chime in on this one.Your opinion would be very much appreciated.Thanks,
Andy =

Hi Andy,
All I can say is I have never had a problem with a Cloyes Hexadjust or any other Torrington bearing set up.

In my opinion the post reserectcted was "installer error" without question.
There is no other reason for the cover to be so obviously ground with a groove that looks to be the exact same size as the head of the hex head bolt that secures the gear to the cam.
If you are at all concerned there are excellent chains with a bronze thrust washer & you can use a Teflon button with an aluminum cover or aluminum or Teflon button with a steel cover for your roller setup.

As a side note again in my opinion, there is no reason to run a thrust button with a flat tappet cam, it is a complete waste given the cam is "pulled" into the block by both the taper of the lobes & the action of the distributor/ oil pump gears

Mike,

Isn't a roller also pulled into the block by the distributor/oil pump gears? If so a roller would generate less thrust against the front of the block. My reasoning being it only has one set of forces drawing it back instead of two. I installed my roller using the Telon button. I actually had 2 of these and tried cutting one to see how durable it is. These things are actually very tough.

Originally posted by GRN69CHV:
Mike,

Isn't a roller also pulled into the block by the distributor/oil pump gears? If so a roller would generate less thrust against the front of the block. My reasoning being it only has one set of forces drawing it back instead of two. I installed my roller using the Telon button. I actually had 2 of these and tried cutting one to see how durable it is. These things are actually very tough. =
The roller is pulled a little by the gears but doesn't have near the loading a flat tappet has because of the taper in the lobes so you need some sort of thrust control.
You are correct, there should be a lot less load on the front of the block with the roller.

And I have used a lot of the Teflon or aluminum buttons & they work quite well & you are right, they are pretty "tough" ;)

Bringing this back from the dead....

If using a flat tappet Hyd cam, and a timing set with a torrington bearing, you do not need to use a cam button, correct?

Thanks in advance!

If you are using a flat tappet cam, you don't need a cam button regardless of whether you use a torrington bearing or not.

Personally, I put a cam button in my BBC with a solid flat tappet thinking it couldn't hurt and I had it anyway. I found out later it was a waste of time but I'm not going to tear off the pan and the timing cover to take it out.

rich L79 and novadude

Oops

richl79 and novadud

this thread is from 2005, just so you know

Oops

richl79 and novadud

this thread is from 2005, just so you know

I think that is why novadude said "bringing this back from the dead".;)