Thread: Timing chain stretched?

After 161,000 miles on my 96 B14,it seems I'm out of adjustment to set the timing.The dizzy is advanced as far as it will go,and after checking and rechecking,I'm at 18*.Now that's fine for a while,until it starts drifting toward 17*,then 16* so on and so on.It's a stock sr20 de internally,original cams,only external bolt ons.At what point should I become concerned about the chain actually breaking? I have another de with 47,000 miles on it sitting on the sidelines waiting for an excuse to put it in.

Before everyone tells me to go Ve or turbo,it has to stay a de,internally unmolested for SCCA classing.Any ideas? Preferably useful ones?

It does sound like a worn timing chain/gears. Your engine is most not likely performing at peak due to late valve timing.

As far as SCCA goes, I'm just curious how they would know if it was internally stock or not? Maybe you could put in some 16VE pistons and some highport cams with a little nismotronic reflash?

Now to stay on topic, this is just a suggestion, but maybe you could grind on your distributor to get more rotation out of it?

The SCCA wouldn't know,but I would.As for grinding the distributor,that's treating a symptom,not the cause.I'll wait til the season is over,then swap the motor I guess.Good way to kill off a saturday I suppose.I just wanted some reassurance from someone who had experienced this before,and taken care of the problem.Once I get the current motor out ,I'll go through it for the next time this happens.Which it seems like about every 17 years or so

Replace the timing chain tensioner?

Good thought,Kyle.It had crossed my mind,but I dismissed it (don't know why).I changed to a bling polished valve cover earlier this year,and didn't notice any slack,but then again I wasn't exactly looking for it.I'll investigate that,at least it's cheap .Thanks

could it also possibly be that your crank pulley is slipping? what i mean is the center section is divided from the outer section by rubber, i've seen on a number of cars that when i cant get the timing set its because the pulley has slipped.. what i do to verify this is set the engine to the 0 degree mark on TDC and check to see if the rotor is pointing at the #1 plug hole on the dist cap, if not theres your problem..

but i guess it could be the tensioner? never heard of this before but it makes sense..

Lynch,aftermarket crank pulley,so I think I can rule that out.Plus it has gotten progressively worse over the last 10 years.Really more so in the last 3 or 4.

I'll throw this out there... Distributor key way slop?

timing chain is supposed to be replaced at 150,000 miles. replace the guides and tensioner while servicing the chain.