[harry k]

Was curious to replace the chain on my Butler/Rollmaster timing chain set,Will Cloyes replacement chain work for it? are the rollers compatible one to other gears?

thanks in advance.

[Tom Vaught]

I have ALWAYS used a matched set from at least the same manufacturer.
No mix and match for me as timing chains are cheap vs potential valve train issues.

Tom V.

[gtofreek]

As long as both chains have the same diameter rollers[which they should], they should be interchangeable. We have bought new chains to replace worn ones before without issues, when the gears still look like new. They both should be 1/4" rollers. The cheap sets are not true roller sets, and have 7/32" rollers, which are crimped around the pin. Those chains can probably be had for less than $20, but I wouldn't spend a dime on them. Those are not compatible.

Beware though, the RollMaster uses an IWIS chain[German made], which is the best and when I priced one last week, it was almost as much as a new RollMaster set[within $30 IIRC]. The Cloyes chain is a Rollon chain, which is almost as much money, but a little cheaper.

[TCSGTO]

The Cloyes billet gear set I just got came with the IWIS chain.

[GTOGEORGE]

i'm a Drag Racer and I have always used RollMaster (Billet) never had a problem. Now this last time I bought a Coyles (Billet) just for Sh_ts & Giggles. I wouldn't mix & match BUT in a pinch I would. Its like this Racing is EXPENSIVE its BETTER to set the MONEY out then to take CHANCES!


GTO George

[mgarblik]

Cloyes and Rollmaster both use IWIS chains. Cloyes has at least 2 quality grades for their true roller chains from IWIS. The best and strongest chain carries a Z at the end of the part number and is 25-30% stronger than anything Rollmaster sells. The best Rollmaster and regular Cloyes true roller chains are equivalent. They should interchange after you measure the roller diameter. IWIS is a huge chain manufacturer with production in Germany as well as Japan. Very high quality. Cloyes also uses some Renold chains in their Pontiac sets. They are made in France and also very high quality. Whatever you buy, do not use any chain that doesn't have either the IWIS or Renold name on the links. This is the race section and I can say with confidence that all the other brands and the ones without any branding are absolute junk and you don't want them in your race engine. A stretched timing chain negates all your hard work degreeing it in exactly where you want it. I had a no-name roller chain stretch 17 crankshaft degrees in a Pontiac application. Customer supplied the timing set so I installed it. Ran good for about 4 runs. I will close by saying Cloyes supports the Pontiac hobby with excellent coverage and has for over 20 years. They are an American Company making a superior product to fit any budget.

[69FIREBIRD76MM]

Not to high jack, what is the part N# for the good quality Cloyes t. Kit?

[BruceWilkie]

Stretched roller chain wears sprockets. Depending how many cycles the chain/sprocket set went, you could set yourself up for premature strech/failure of the new chain. In extreme conditions both will fail in short order.

On equipment I've worked on I've seen sprockets that looked fine and chainged just the chain because I couldnt get good tension... a week later the sprocket teeth started looking like fish hooks and the recent chain was stretched. After experiencing that a few times I just changed the whole set and no more issues till millions of cycles later when it should be worn out.

I'm still a fan of good link type chain sets... same rules apply, change everything as a set and you'll get the most life out of them.

[mgarblik]

The Cloyes web site is actually very good. You can download the performance catalog and go right to the Pontiac section. I think they have 6 different sets for Pontiacs. Each set has different features and appropriate costs depending on what you want or need. For a race engine, the minimum quality set would be a true roller set with a cast camshaft gear and a 3 keyway crank gear. We ran that set-up on the Grocery Getter up to 1300+ HP with zero issues. They also have that same set with 9 keyways. Then you can step up to billet steel gears, which we run in the Boss Bird. Available in 3 and 9 keyways. The ultimate set is the billet 9 keyway set with the Z chain. It's pricy, but a fraction of the cost of a gear drive or a belt drive. Personally, I think the simple chain drive is also more reliable. We run 450 lbs. seat pressure on the springs, drive the fuel pump and the 44 amp magneto off that chain drive. The engine has seen 11,000 RPM's, (not on purpose). no failures, ever in the chain drive.

[gtofreek]

Mike, it's good to know the Cloyes uses IWIS chains also. When we called about a replacement Cloyes chain, we were told the replacement chains by themselves were Roll-on.

BTW, the IWIS name on the chains looks kind of like JWR.