Is there any advantage using timing gears over a timing chain??

When I was a teenager I thought gear drives were the coolest thing, could never afford one then though. As I have gotten older I have read and been told that they have a higher parasitic hp loss than a quality chain. Personally, I would buy a quality/premium timing chain set, make sure when you look at it the chain rollers are "seamless", do not have a "seam" across the roller, they can split at the seam or start disintegrating under hard use, Smitty

Well on Harleys the gears will be alot smoother/more reliable and free up some HP. No chain to stretch or wear out either. Not sure about other motors though.

The chains dont "stretch" like in the old days....unless you got 200K miles on a motor...lol. A quality chain is the way to go. The problem with gear drives..is that they send any and all vibrations thru your whole cam/valvetrain system. Basically, there is alot more wear and tear on a motor with a gear drive setup in it. It's a direct drive system, as opposed to a chain which acts sorta like a buffer in the system.

your right,gear drives are harder on the valve train because of the harmonics tranmitted.the chain acts as a shock arrester.they sound pretty cool though.

cost you h/p...chains/belts much better

Then suckers are loud too! They don't call'm a "poor man's blower" for nothin.

Too much harmonics and not good for sustained higher rpms. No marine engine builders use them and that should tell you something.

Then Y are they in most every NAVY ENGINE !!!!!??????

BTW..also in my racemotor..and no problem at all !!!!

relaible power a lot of it ..!!!!!!!!!!!

Just sayin'

Just curious, have any of you actually run a gear drive in a marine application to know this, what brand ? what motor ?