American Auto are no longer able to supply metal timing gears seems to be an issue with the supplier. They can only supply alloy kit or Fibre. Its just that there are so many warnings on the forum about the alloy I am not keen to use them on a long trip. So not sure what to do as time is running out, Harv did mention other suppliers but I think that time is against me.
Think I may have to try my luck and go with the fibre gear fitted and hope by the time it breaks if it does (wishful thinking), that they may be available somehow. Wasn't planning to prepare for this trip this way but I suppose that there will definitely be more issues and problems to come so its just starting a little earlier then I thought. At least I had a care free 1300 km from Hobart!
I've run alloy timing gears in greys and reds over the years. I've never had one fail and one was even thrashed to the buggery by my son in a 173 Torana I built for him. He was lucky to get a service done on it every 10,000km much to my annoyance. I think a lot of failures of alloy units may have been under race conditions or similar. Others may know. Considering yours is a stocker I don't think you'll have a drama. Just make sure your oil feed isn't blocked, unscrew it and give it a good clean and refit/align and make sure you have the correct backlash and end float for the cam. I think the alloy gear will be fine for what you are using it for.
Richard (Bluehaze) is running one is his FB (186 red) which is an engine I built a while back, and he's done quite a few km's now I'm betting.
How do the alloy ones go for noise ? Not sure what brand American Auto sell but just checked the JP performance site and they list the alloy gears for FX - FJ only is there and issue to fit to FB-EK?
I've never had any issues with noise either with steel or alloy. Some say not to replace the crank gear but I do the lot and treat the gears as a matched set.
