Does my Chevy S-10 4.3 Vortec engine have a timing chain or timing belt?

Question

Does my Chevy S-10 4.3 Vortec engine have a timing chain or timing belt? What is the replacement mileage either way?

Answer 1

It has a timing chain.

Answer 2

Hundreds of thousands of miles?



Realistically I'm going to say about 200,000 miles maintained decently.



Have seen but one stock GM timing chain setup go bad, and it was in a car that was already 20 years old.



Not a whole lot to go bad on them, the chain stretches some, and at least for a majority of the run, the timing gear teeth were nylon, so those can wear down/off as well.

Answer 3

Timing chain



The chains last quite awhile. Its not like a timing belt. In fact I have only seen a few timing chains theirself that needed replacing and that was on V8 chevy engines with well over 300,000 miles.



The biggest prob was like what Monkey said. Alot of the stock units had gears with nylon teeth and they wear down over time and let the chain slip/jump a tooth, or sheer all the teeth off.