Hey everyone, found a clean 84 but its a few states away. I want to make sure that the plastic chain guides have been replaced with the metal ones before purchasing and the owner was kind enough to remove the valve cover and take some photos. Unfortunately the one here is the best I have to work with, can anyone tell me if that guide on the left is definitively a metal one, it looks like it to me but Im not sure....

Thanks.
IMG_0754 by quickfades, on Flickr

 

The one on the right is the one that most people use the metal one on. Can't see it from that view.

 

I don't recognize that ring in front of the sprocket. The metal bracket touching that metal ring, on the left side, nearly looks familiar but no not quite. Yes you need to look down the driver's side chain to tell if you have a metal backing. By the looks of your sprocket and chain I would say timing work has been done, and IMO as long as they didn't use cheap parts it's good to go for lots more miles even if it's plastic again.

Here's mine with a new set, and again you can't see the metal backing until you look down the drivers side of the chain

 

thanks so much. really helpful, guess I may just need to wait till I get down there. Do the new metal guides look significantly different than the stock ones?

 

Not really. Just metal with a small amount of hardened rubber/plastic on them.


Kinda anal that your making him do all this before you even buy it. I say buy it and run it. If it were me selling the truck id laugh in your face for wanting me to do all that work. Unless it were fully rebuilt show truck or something.

 

And for informations sake, that "ring" on the cam sprocket is used to operate the fuel pump on carb'd engines.