Do these 3800 engines need to have a timing belt change at some point as preventative maintainence like the Japenses makes do?

Thanks,
BIll

No timing belt, it'* a chain.

Overall there is no required replacement mileage like the Japanese cars. Many here have over 200K on their original chain. GM made a good chain with very meaty teeth to keep them from ever jumping timing.

great information on this forum. I just purchased a 2001 SSEi and have already been able to find the answers to some of the most common issues with these cars. glad to hear it is a chain instead of a belt and a good one at that.

With all due respect: The timing chain on the 3800 V6 of 1994 Buick Vintage is not what I would call a "meaty" chain. Comparing it to other timing chains of the past that I have seen, it looks and feels positively flimsy. While the replacement timing chain was definitely stiffer it also was a bit on the loose side. My timing chain failed before 90,000 miles throwing the code for cam position sensor and triggering the SES light intermittantly. The periods of intermittant SES light off got shorter and shorter until it was on nearly all of the time. It was running ok but was hard to start in cold weather and cold and getting harder. It stalled on a couple of occasions also. Those are a couple of symptoms that are written in manuals for this problem.

Can't say as I have ever heard of a timing set failing on here. You may be the rare exception. And exceptions do happen.

Now, if you would like to talk about Buick'* **** poor design of a timing set on the mid 80'* 3.0 V6, have at it! Plastic coated!!

Well I have not got the car back together and running yet so the ultimate proof is not yet to be had. I was told that given the symptoms and the other attempted fixes that did not fix the car that it was likely a stretched timing chain. On inspection there is no doubt the chain was worn quite a bit and needed replacement. I was told that the cam position code will come on when the camshaft position is in the neighborhood of 10 degrees out of position. Mine was at least 5 degrees and maybe 10. One way to see this is to remove the cam shaft pos sensor and move the magnet in the cam gear so that you can see it through the hole in the cover with a mirror and rock the camshaft back and forth with a breaker bar and watch for lost motion. It was obvious then.

I have to agree, in the 10 or so years I have been on this forum, I can count on one hand the number of legit timing chain failures that have come about. Most chain related issues stem from the chain tensioner failing, and I suspect this may have been the case.

Of course, there may have been a couple of lemons from the factory as is the case with any manufacturer, and you may have one. Most cases however, have valvetrain issues or spin a bearing long before the chain comes due, usually doing hundreds of thousands of miles before giving up.

The cam tensioner was worn a bit but not excessively and it appeared to be functional. The chain was pushed toward the right quite a bit and there was some lost motion as I said. One note of explanation the car was my late mother'* car and she put only 37,000 miles on the car in 16 years.(now 91,000). Mostly very short trips of 2 miles or less. It still ran well and gets pretty decent mileage on the highway. The last few trips the SES light would stay on all of the time. It was intermittent for a long time. At the current time I am waiting on passenger motor mount to complete the timing chain job. Then for the ultimate test of the repair.

short trips with long periods of sitting are the worst thing for mechanical things, because they never get the lubrication they were designed to. and the oil breaks down and probably wasnt changed often. i think i would rather have a car with 200k that was driven every day