Hello! My car is approaching 120,000KM (about, 80,000ish miles?) and the timing belt has never been changed. A local mechanic is asking for $350 for the job. Is this a good price? Thanks! edit: wait...I just read that thirdgens don't even have timing belts...they have timing chains? oh gawd i'm so confused.

yep - no belt - uses a timing chain. The chain itself is about $30 stock, $50 for an upgraded double-roller. Job takes about 3 hours in the driveway on a bad day, so...

assuming an $80 per hour shop rate, means $160 labor and $60 parts (always mark parts up over parts store price, plus any shop should do it in 2 hours) - so I'd say that is $100 too much.

BUT - remember that shops go by a "book" of listed times per project, and the "book may list this as a 3 hour job regardless of how long it actually takes, so they will charge for a 3 hour job plus parts, plus shop fees, rag fees, disposal fees, and all the other BS that they tag on - so $350 might be a decent average estimate.

I just know I would never pay it, I'd buy the parts, buy a book, buy the tools, do it myself, and save $250!

You don't need to worry about your timing chain at 80k miles. They last about 3 times that long in a stockish engine.

80K miles? That's nothing. They last much longer than that before absolutely requiring replacement. Obviously, they will stretch & wear some, the higher the mileage, but I wouldn't replace one in a stock engine "just becuase." Had one that went 240,000 miles before I sold the car (still running like a top). Yes, the timing chain was loose and sloppy, but still basically doing it's job. Ignition timing floated very little until about the 180,000 mile mark, then it picked up some noticable variance in timing when revving up and down.

Which reminds me.... a simple ignition timing check can tell you a lot about a timing chain. As with my example, above, if the ignition timing is nice and solid as you rev up and down (using correct factory base timing adjustment procedure) the chain is OK and doing it's intended job. When it gets to the point it's floating about 2* or more, it's definitely time to replace.

NOT if its the plastic/composite teethed one like my 1983 G-van had. I was idling through a parking lot at around 140K and ZIPPPP...Dead.

I had my dizzy shaft ride up and down. spark scatter. i shimmed it no more jumping. 120k.. that dude is charging you that much cause you called it a timing belt. i bet the mechanic kept calling it a timing belt the whole quote. thats dirty.

My engine had 70,000 on it when I did my Head/Cam/Intake swap. The stock timing chain was kind of sloppy. I don't think it was ready to give or anything though.

My car has almost 200,000 miles on it. Still running the same factory stock engine. Unless you have problems with it keeping the timing I would not change it.

Thanks a lot brothers, I won't bother with the timing chain then unless I suspect there's a problem/it's going to blow up.

Good point, Fast. I wasnt thinking of those. Do you know if GM used them in 3rd Gens? I know they, as well as Ford, used them in some trucks and vans in late 70's-early 80's, but I've never come across one. If I knew I had one of those in my engine, it would be a great excuse to try a different cam just to get it out of there!

All the 3rd gen engines I've been inside have used a link-belt style chain, but with steel teeth on the upper gear, not nylon teeth.

if you did it on your own ok

300+ wait till it needs it

It's a 60v6, not a SBC. The chain is longer and they do have a habit of stretching. Start worrying at about 100K miles, it's very easy to replace. Some will last way longer and some will fail sooner.


$350 is way too much, if you can't do it then find a shadetree mechanic to do it for a case of beer and parts cost.

That would have been a great idea, except the cam that came in mine was pretty decent from the factory for a factory cam....It wasn't the little "817" peanut cam that came in your garden variety 305s. If I had one of those cams in a 305, I would have hated it.... 179/194@ .050, .350/.385" just would not make enough power to pull a heavy van around, so good thing it wasn't in there.

I think several of us just assumed V8. But I have seen a few 3rd gens with the LG4 that had the composite gears as well.

Sounds like your mechanic is a honda/toyota guy. Timing belt (chain in your case) replacement is much more crucial on japanese cars because they have very low valve clearances and very long valve stems; hence they bend easisly. They have also opted for a cheap rubber belt instead of a $30 chain. If the belts on these engies break it will bend every valve in the engine 9 out of 10 times. Some honda models also use the timing belt to drive the water pump so if your water pump goes bad, guess what, bent valves! Sorry about the rampage but congratulations, you're driving American!

Thread jack: Hey Fast, since you're always sticking up for the stepchild 305, you're gonna love this: I'm predicting a 12.9 next time out with the bone-stock LG4, peanut cam and all, in my daughters '86 you see in my sig. Just one little bolt-on mod.....a ~90-shot . It went 13.1's last fall, and it's gotten an S-10 TC and SFC's since then. It does have a complete TPI exhaust and 3.73 gears.
I wonder if it has the composite cam gear? It has 130k. I'm not going to worry about it. If anything goes with that engine, there's a stock L31 sitting in my garage ready to drop in.