I have about 30,000 miles on the one I installed and it's the Rolon. I believe these were made in India at one point in time. I wish you luck.

 

Parts fail, period. Timing chain breaking is not a common issue. I never run double rollers, I think they are overkill for most applications.

 

SDPC Techs guaranteed if I ordered from them, my Rollmaster Dual would come with Jwis chains. I ordered, checked the chains and they were cheaper Rolon chains from India. I called SDPC back and they gave me major attitude and hung up on me. So much for trusting SDPC.

I gave the Rollmaster set away for free and refused to install their weak chains on my car. I ordered and run a single Jwis SS from Katech w/Cloyes gears.

I had a stock one break 3 years ago and I hate cheap chains.

 

No offense but something else was wrong. I've seen some broken timing chains but never the Rollmaster. ALL were not the timing chains fault anyway even the stock ones that broke. We've used those on huge solid roller with lots of spring pressure and very high rpm and never had any problems with any chains. Why and when was the chain installed in the first place and how did it "break?"

PS. not accusing you of anything or flaming you but rather trying to see why this happened. The bottom gear or top gear may not have been installed right initially and the chain might have been kinked or something. I've seen people force stuff on and even hammer on timing sets. Who installed this timing set?

 

I have taken a pic of the chain link. It is blurry But mine does say JWIS on the chain links and NOT Rolon. http://jm.moparplace.com/jwis.JPG

 

Well hopefully you guys get to the bottom of what happened so it doesn't happen again. I still bet something else was going on there and you'll find it when you take it apart further.

 

Wow, those are the nice ones.
Your link isn't working tho..?

 

Linky no worky

 

Strange. Should be working now.

 

Maybe my buddie was doing server work. Because I went to the other 2 pc's in my home that have no access to my server to uplaod and they work fine. Hmm strange.

 

The link would only workfor me if I copy'n'pasted it.

 

Cut 'n' pasting the work linked.
Odd. That Jwis has cheaper looking iron outer plates.

My Jwis from Katech was all stainless steel.
Looks more like the LS2 or IRL chain.

 

Just when I was thinking I had the "only" one that had ever broken. This just happened a couple of days ago. Happened on a 2nd gear roll. Got up to about 3600rpm and then silence. Looks to me like the center link just let go and snapped the pin.





I disagree with racer7088. "Caribe" in his previous thread stated that he had ran it all week and it was strong, gone to the track (probably raced?) and then to his sisters' house. Thats alot of run time. If something else was wrong, the chain, or something else would have broken at initial start up if it was improperly installed. We also have used these chains on solid roller high spring pressure, high HP/RPM engines. Hell 2 months ago we made just over 1000hp with the same 1160 Rollmaster on a solid roller LS1. This is the only chain we like to use and have never had ANY problems with it until this one. The vehicle that this chain was on was around 550 rwhp NA and hydraulic roller. It has been running without any issue for months now, been sprayed a few times, dynoed multiple times. Why didn't it break then if the chains are never at fault and there must be something else wrong? We have completely inspected everything possibly related that could make the chain break and there are no clues. Just a broken link.

I guess it's true, If it's man made or if it's mechanical, it can break. It's not impossible.

I have been involved with the LS1 since '97 when it came out in the C5. In this 8 year timespan, I have only seen with my own eyes 4 LS1's break their timing chains. 2 have been stock chains ( there were no double rollers back then) and these 2 Rollmasters here. All the ones I have dealt with have been 6-speeds, all make over 500rwhp, and all are fairly heavy street cars but, I have numerous other high HP cars out there right now that fit the same description with the same chain and zero problems. Never seen an automatic do it.

Racer7088 just out of curiosity, how long have you been working with the GenIII smallblock and how many chains have you seen broken? Was the vehicle manual trans?

 

Any of the black plates used in these timing chains are the weaker iron ones I won't allow on my car after breaking a stocker. Try using only silver looking stainless steel plates and focus on their thickness.

I think people that downshift put more wear on the timing chains, who knows. The timing chain damper might help.

 

To the top until we get some more answers....

 

Since they came out and also on cars with manual transmissions and real cams turning big rpm before anyone else was doing anything with these cars. I have never seen any broken chains so far that weren't from damage at assembly. Seen several here in Houston that had bolts come back out and fixed two of them. It seems that most came from the same two shops! Now realize that I am not saying it is impossible because NOTHING is impossible but very very unlikely especially on any hydraulic roller stuff. We didn't even have nice stuff like the Rollmasters back then and we still didn't break any chains!

We had solid rollers when no one else had them and still no problems and we were turining 8000 rpm. I did that first solid roller stuff with Ron at Isky myself since we didn't have any stuff for the LS1s at that time. The cores and cams were from LSM and we modified regular lifters and used another brands tie bars. Jud told me to do it and I did it. I also learned after specing and ordering all the solid roller stuff that precious few to NONE of the LS1 "experts" knew diddly about the LS1 and still don't from what I usually see. That same deal was the first 10 and 9 second NA LS1 as well and is in 13 magazines. It just takes common sense!

Also keep in mind that I am not saying you personally screwed this guys timing set up so don't take it that way but just telling what I know about timing chains and such in the absense of any of the usual circus act stuff that goes on in the LS1 world. You ought to know since you work in it too. We have had cars come over here that had pistons in upside down from some of these other shops and supposedly professional people did that too.

 

What's the point of a double-roller if it breaks just like a regular chain. Wouldn't it be a better design if it was actually two chains? At least then if one breaks you hear it, and it might damage easy to replace stuff on the front of the engine (and even then not so bad) and not your entire engine. Thats sucks.

 

Erik, I understand your point. I also have ran many LS1 vehicles with high horsepower for many years with STOCK timing chains and have had zero issues. Hell, I was the first one to run 9's on a stock shortblock LS1 with a 300 shot of N2o on a stock timing chain with 66,000 miles on it. I ran that car for over a year like that.

I just want to know what you think it is if it is not the chains fault. I want to know why you think that Caribes car could run strong for a week, and race at the track if you say "the bottom gear or top gear may not have been installed right initially". If that was the case don't you think it would have atleast broke right at start up or bent some valves or been down on power?

Same go's for the chain that I have broken. How could this engine make almost 550 rwhp go to the track and a few dyno days and have no issues at all then, one day it breaks while aggresively driving it on the street. We have thoroughly inspected this engine and there are no signs of any kind of cam/ cam bearing damage, piston to valve clearance issues, pushrod length, valvetrain geometry problems? I'm not trying to get into a pissing match with you at all. I just wonder why you are such a firm believer that the chain is not the issue because in my case with this engine, it looks that way.

And the part about the "Experts", I know what you mean I have seen some interesting things myself but don't get me wrong, there are some pretty reputable shops out there (including ourselves *cough-cough* ) that seem to know the GenIII very well. But there is one shop that actually advertises that they are "experts". I can't remeber their name

I know what you mean about the "circus stuff" that goes on in the LS1 world but, please tell me you are not serious about pistons being upside down.

 

This sucks i just had my motor rebuilt cause of a broke timing chain. So i upgrade to a Rollmaster double roller timing set LOL. Spent $3500 on this motor ill be pissed if the chain breaks.

 

Mike,

I am absolutely serious about pistons being installed and hung up side down. Also the chain rarely breaks if it is somewhat damaged but like anything else will run a while till it totally lets go. Most I have seen also had bolts backing off too or had one or the other gears seize up at installation and then people still cranked them all the way on while the other gear was only part of the way on.

Remember I said nothing is impossible though as far as your case goes so again don't take it that way.