Which one should I get for my SB Chevy swap?

I have had this delima for a long time. I love the sound of the gear drive but I also love the sound of a V8.

I have been told that I will be tired of the sound in about a year and want to switch to a chain. I already have the chain but the motor is not installed so it will be real easy to do the swap.

Please help me make up my mind

if you want a gear whine then get the straight cut race gears for the 4speed tranny to support the v8 power
personally passed on installing a 3800sc because of the blower whine - love the sound but not for extended periods of time

most gear drives have a note in them stating some rev limit.
did you build your engine to go past 6000rpm?

and the sound is alot worse for the passenger then the driver.

From my personal experience, as well as what everyone seems to say, gear drive systems are sloppy. They will always have play in them, so your cam timing will always be changing. And they use alotta HP to drive them. I'd stick with a chain IMO. If you want whine, get a supercharger.

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'88 Fiero GT - 3.4L GM Crate engine
http://www.cardomain.com/ride/707857
'91 GMC Syclone - #449
http://www.cardomain.com/ride/2067330

My motor is built basically stock. It's a 305 from a 88' Z28. With the add ons I have added, it is mabey 230 horses.

i dont believe a gear drives uses any more HP to drive than what a chain does.

and once the engine is spinning and the idle gear is caught up in between the drive and driven gear, where is the slop suppose to come from?

What is the advantage of a gear drive??

The main advantage to a gear drive is zero play in your cam. They sell a quite version and a regular version, you can still hear the quite version a little bit.
no flames please

Yeah, they come in different intensities but I believe even the mild version which I had in a camaro will be too much for a fiero given that I have never heard the blower whine from any of the production vehicles but could hear the gear whine in my car quite well, I imagine it would be just that much more intense in an engine that you are sitting that close to that if you follow protocol will be hard mounted to the frame enhancing the sound even more.

In the October issue of Car Craft they did a comparison between the Competition Cams Adjustable Timing Set (chain), Milodon Fixed-Idler Geardrive (three gear setup), C.A.T. Dual Idler Geardrive (four gear setup; it has two idlers), and the Jesel Beltdrive. The dyno results showed that with the exact same cam settings there was less than a 3 HP variation between them all. They said the Milodon gear setup was most audible at idle, but it was not obnoxious. The C.A.T. geardrive sounded was similar, though C.A.T also sells a "noisy" version if you like that.
From what I read, I would go with the C.A.T. setup. It's easier to install (the idler gears are "floating"; they aren't actually bolted to the block!), and it fits under the stock timing cover. With the Milodon setup (which also costs four times as much) you have to have a water pump spacer in some applications... which is obviously a problem in a Fiero!

Thanks for all the info everyone. I am thinking about getting it basically for the noise. I have heard cars that hqave noisy ones and love the sound. The lack of slop and no chain streaching over time were also conciderations. I already have a chain installed and I think I will stick with that for now.

Thanks again everyone.