Hi,

I was looking at purchasing the TCT from Ballade (Billman doesn't sell internationally ) and saw that they have a kit with the timing chain gear.

Is the gear worth it if im only doing the TCT as preventative maintenance? It seems a bit much to do in this sense and i gather this is something i would do if i rebuilt the engine with an old chain?

My S is an 01 with 120K miles / 197K KM.

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

Thanks.

 

I have a 2002 with 94k. I just recently swapped out my TCT with the Ballade Sports TCT. I didn't bother replacing anything else.

 

I feel that it is an incredibly subjective question. Before you bother buying it at all you should see if your timing is off in the first place, otherwise you are completely wasting money. Then evaluate the claims that it makes and see if it's worth the cost of the gear and the labor. The theory behind the modification has been beaten to death in other threads.

 

Having full combustion closer to piston TDC makes more power always, nothing subjective about that. The closer you get the more precise control you need over the combustion process to avoid catastrophic misfires.

http://performancetrends.com/Definitions/Images/Cylinder-Pressure-Lrg.gif

 

i fully agree. My comment was in response to whether it was worth it monetarily for OP in particular being subjective since people value things differently depending on a number of factors...

 

Oh for sure there's easier and cheaper ways to do it. $300 on a gear seems silly when you can just get adjustable cam gears for $120 more from skunk2 and get more benefit than from simply correcting for a slightly stretched chain, causing slightly retarded valve timing. Or just offset woodruff keys, the valve train is retarded by half the offset of the crank timing. Usually about 2 degrees according to Ballads, so 1 degree retarded intake and exhaust timing. Advancing timing one degree would put you back to square one.

 

Thank you for the responses.

I'll steer clear for now. I only considered it since as im from AUS and would rather pay for shipping once than twice and had the mentality of doing the job once and forgetting about it.

I'll get the TCT and get my timing checked. If there is a timing issue i will address it separately.

Thanks guys!