I had a 1988 Olds Ceira with the GM “Iron Duke” 4 cyl engine. It was used in many smaller GM cars and it used timing gears instead of belt or chain. You’d think it would be very robust. But to reduce “gear noise” some Einstein thought would be a good idea to make the larger gear (on the camshaft) out of a composite material. Yes, I was driving to work and my car just quit. It was fixed under warranty, the fix was to replace it with a robust steel gear. I did not hear any noise out of that engine after, so I don’t know what they were thinking.
Hmm, fiber timing gears have been used for many decades. The 1951 Studebaker V8 engine used a fiber (phenolic resin composite) camshaft timing gear mated to a steel crankshaft gear, only the high performance Avanti engine options got aluminum in place of the fiber gears.
You can buy timing “gear drive” sets for a lot of OHV V8’s to replace the timing chain… V6 too..
Timing belt conversions for some OHV V8’s (probably V6 too) are also available…
+1
That was the “cause of death” for my 1960 Falcon. Its book value, along with its age (19 years) just didn’t warrant the repair cost.
My '69 Corvette with the 427 had a factory supplied timing gear with a nylon coating over the steel teeth to reduce gear noise. Of course, it failed eventually and stopped up the oil pickup screen with nylon chunks as it disintegrated over time.
Like I could have heard the timing gears with a BBC and factory side pipes. Not to mention, timing gear whine is not exactly detrimental to the experience. Guys were adding gears cut specifically to make noise at one point…
My two cents, experience and opinion.
carbs: never really had any big carb problems but FI has been trouble free. I woul put a kit in every so often but usually was the acceleration pump that was worn.
Alternators: i used to overhaul them about every 70k for around $30 for regulato, bearings, and trio. Now i only buy new delco or delco rebuilt and have no problems.
Traffic curcles: we have one with four entrances. The problem is it is so small it is hard to tell if the guy is coming through or going to exit. So you stop and wait defeating the purpose. I dont think they are a great safety feature.
Fuel pumps: i have bought a significant number of GM pumps. I dont trust them.