JD1969

Man when you put it that way, it REALLY makes them look bad. LOL

86HOGT

Ah, I heard one this weekend on an F-Body, it would get way annoying, and doesn't sound that great especially when you open the hood to find no screw.

86 5.0L

they had cars getting 45+mpg in the 80s...

67mustang302

The only advantage of gear drives is that it maintains consistent timing at high rpm, no chain stretch or deflection. That said, most pushrod engines that turn high rpm don't need a gear drive, I think both NASCAR Cup engines and NHRA Pro Stockers are running timing chains...though the Pro Stockers might run gears. Timing gears are also used on some OHC high rpm race engines like Formula 1, but that's cuz it's basically impossible to get a chain to function correctly at 18,000rpm. But gear drives are heavy, noisy, complicated(in OHC setups) and can be hard on parts.

1ATony

Yup those were timing gears you heard. A double roller chain is fine.

JD1969

Isn't that where a belt drive would come into play.

5.0stanger

As far as I know, poeple use gear set cus it sounds cool (to them) hell you can buy loud cut gears and quiet cut gears...it is just old school hot rodding basically for the sound now a days.

67mustang302

If a belt drive will work, yes. The problem with the extremely high rpm(currently 18,000rpm limits, several years ago they were pushing 20,000rpm) seen in F1 engines is that at those kinds of rpms there's a HUGE amount of force on the belts, and stretching/breaking becomes a major issue, as well as all kinds of harmonics that cause the belts to vibrate and screw up timing. Formula 1 engine rpm is probably the only real justification for a gear drive.