Not if you're doing a cam swap too like he will be. Having to do all that o would just pull the motor. Everyone just needs to talk him into doing a good converter now too

 

Haha, yeah, no go on the converter. I already get 9mpg on E85 around town, don't need that to drop to 7 or 8 And it already has tons of off-idle torque, so I would just be going through rear tires like crazy

In light of all of this, I am really leaning towards leaving the stock chain in there. I know it's a ticking time bomb, but it sounds like a serious pain to drop the pan and I don't track nor beat on my truck.

 

Wait until you take a ride in my truck, I've got a baby converter and it makes a big difference. If you get one of the big diameter circle d converters you won't notice much difference. An extra 600 rpm makes a huge difference in performance not to mention shift recovery with a much more efficient converter.

 

I have a stock timing chain still. 150K miles on it......

Not sure if that's good or bad.

 

So, did a good bit of searching on the forum, and couldn't find any stories of broken timing chains that weren't caused by something else (spun cam bearing, not installed correctly, etc). Since it sounds like a royal PITA to change, and the risk of pinching the oil pump o-ring and having to do it all over again, I think I am going to rock the stocker and keep my fingers crossed.

And Cody, I am going to take you up on that ride-along next time I head that way!