78 ghia v6 timing gear broken... is it worth putting a gear set in this motor? is it an interference engine? does it have solid lifters? i am not positive that its the gears, but the distributor is not turning. i pulled the distributor and its not broken.. does it have steel/iron gears in it or does it have that plastic/phenolic upper gear like the 300 straight 6cyl.. the car has 58k and has all the original equipment on it.
The gearset in the 2.8 is a composite/nylon cam gear and a steel crank gear. The engin is NOT an interference engine, and the lifters are solid. The new gears that I have seen are aluminum (cam) and steel crank. It's not an extremly difficult job but not a job for someone who doesn't have any idea what he/she is doing. If the rest of the car and engine is in good shape I don't see a reason why a set of gears and the time to do the job wouldn't be worth it. Tim
I agree, fix it. There is a trick with those V-6's So that you dont have to pull the motor. The front timing cover set comes with a front pan seal. You only drop the two bolts that holds the timing cover to the pan and remove the cover. Fish out the big chunks of broken gear that may have dropped in there with one of those screw grabber claws and the flush the pan out with a good engine flush or gas. All the small stuff will fall out the drain plug. Re-set your new gears bolt it up, add oil and wala! No having to pull the motor or the full pan.
