So I was browsing through autoworkz pics archive of his S13 450SX tVH45 transplant, when I came across this (cropped & zoomed in for better clarity.)

What I noticed is that the timing chain and in other pictures, the timing gears are of the simplex style.

I had the rocker covers off my VH41 the other night, changing the gaskets... and my motor's got duplex timing chains, so I was most intrigued to spot this difference today.

For those who don't know, duplex chain is double layered/linked:http://www.roymech.co.uk/images11/chain_1a.gif

I just spoke to an engineer here at work regarding the comparison between simplex and duplex chain, and also rung the local SKF agent. Both of them agree that the duplex chain would be roughly 150% the strength of the simplex, due to the additional layer of links.

Obviously there'd be a small efficiency loss due to the additional mass being moved, but the increase in strength is really reassuring to me that this motor can take big revs, and bodes well for the motor holding up to future modifications.

Now obviously a simplex timing chain setup is still really damn strong, not meaning to put down the VH45, but it seems the duplex chain is another feat of Nissan's ridiculous overengineering... I love it !

Does anyone else has further pics/information regarding this ? It'd be interesting to note which other models of VH engine have either simplex or duplex timing chains. It also makes me wonder whether the crank & internals swap is actually possible, and if the VH41 crank chain drive is compatible with the VH45 crank.

Anyone ?? I thought this would be an interesting topic... what kinda motors have you guys got and what timing chain setups are they running ?

Anyone with a 94+ motor ?

a mate of mine has a 3TGTEU engined celica. RWD 1.8 Turbo. Double row timing chain.

The engine has factory valvetrain and does not see relatively high rpm.

The engine was fully rebuilt.

The double row chain BROKE after about 10,000 km's

faulty chain? dont know! but doesnt give me much faith that they are in fact any stronger

Cmon, that was a Toyota, you can't compare them to Nissan :p That had to be a faulty chain, it's very unlikely for chain to just break that easily.

I just spoke to my boss here at work, the head engineer... we had a look through a chain specification book and found a page specifying tensile strengths of chain on a big chart. We compared simplex to duplex of the same type and found the duplex to have 1.9 times the tensile strength rating, so just under double.

I'm quite confident they're stronger, but the main point of this thread is to establish which VH motors came with each chain type... as I'm starting to figure out a kind of evolutional path Nissan took with the motors.