For those that are wondering about changing their timing chains, I just changed mine at 176,000 miles and the parts I took out were still just as good as the new ones. There was absolutely no wear on any of the guides and the chains still looked great. Of course I am religious about keeping my oil changed at about 40% and I use Pennzoil full synthetic oil and a good filter. If you don’t keep your oil changed you will have wear, mine could have easily did another 100,000 I believe. But by the time I could tell that I was already half way there somI just went ahead and changed them.

 

Got pictures of the OEM parts? I think you did the right thing, and now you know it’s good for another 175,000 to 200,000 miles

 

Thanks for the info.

 

I do not have pictures but I will take some this afternoon. There was no wear on any of the guides at all.

 

Good to know. Thanks for sharing! My 2.4 has 163k on and I've been thinking about the timing chain.

 

May be true, but I'll bet the old chain had some stretch to it.

 

The timing chain was still plenty tight, the balance chain had a little stretch but still would have went many more miles.

 

 

Being tight does not mean the chain hadn't stretched. The tensioner takes up any slack, until it reaches the end of it's travel. Then you're on borrowed time. If the balance shaft chain had slack, then you dodged a bullet there.

It's possible that a previous owner changed the timing set, but not the balance shaft chain set.

 

No major wear on the guides, or chains but it’s better than kicking yourself wishing you had changed the set, instead of calling around for a low mileage replacement engine!