Okay, still doing research for the upcoming top swap, and I just want to make sure that the engine is overengineered so that I dont have any internal problems, and so I'm able to go any way I want in the future. At the moment my block has over 140,000 miles and I would assume that it still has the stock timing chain in the car. I was thinking about putting a double chain drive in place of the single (once again I like to overengineer), but I read that the balance shaft gear or the entire balance shaft would have to be removed. I was wondering if anyone knows how that effects the way the engine runs or the feel of the car under acceleration, deceleration, and while driving on the highway.

 

I run a double roller on my 96 monte- and you must delete the balance shaft (well, as you said, you can just delete the gear and leave the shaft- personally I pulled the shaft and plugged the rear oil hole). I really doubt you'll be able to tell the difference with and without. Granted 99.99% of people that do these have pretty big cams, so of course the engine won't be as smooth at idle- but up above 1500 rpm or so, my engine is just as smooth as stock (granted I had it professionally balanced in the rebuild)- but i've been in others' cars that had it deleted with a stock bottom end, and its the same thing.

Now, my second thing is- if you don't NEED a double roller timing chain- don't get one. There is no reason to 'over engineer' the timing chain, the stock one works just fine- and you're not going to break it (one in good condition)- the dampener does wear over time as the chain stretches, but thats about it. I do think its a good idea to stick a new one on if you've got it all apart, but you really should just stick a stock set in there.

The double roller requires you to machine down the oil pump housing cover so the chain doesn't hit it; some require cleanup around the seat on the crank sprocket (due to interference with the crank); and you will no longer have any tensioner- which means when this chain stretches too much, you're going to have to pull it apart and install a new one- you're not going to be able to drive another 140k miles without worry on it.

Its one thing if you've got a big nasty cam in there with some 130 or 150# springs, but there is no reason to beef it up if you don't have that. Also, if you decide to do a big cam in the future, you're gonna have to pull the timing set anyways, so you can just install a double roller then.

Looking at your mod list- how are you going to make these work? As far as I knew the C6 had a different wheel bolt pattern- and I thought the calipers had an intergral bracket and wouldn't bolt up? Plus, where are you going to find 14" rotors that bolt up to a wbody and have the correct offset to use with them?

 

Thanks bumpin, I was actually hoping to hear from you on that. As far as the C6 rims go, I looked into some custom MC bearings with 120mm bolt pattern. If I go that route, some stock corvette rotors would mount right up. I would need a spacer for the rims though if i went with the Z06 calipers. I think it would be a 1 inch spacer...which i might need to mount the rims anyway due to interference with the strut. Like I said though, Im still in the research phase. But the z06 caliper should mount right up to the spindle on the MC as long as a regular corvette caliper bracket mounts up to a MC spindle