95 K1500...Timing Chain or Belt?
 

Does anyone know which one is on my truck? It has a 5.7 engine if it makes any difference. Thanks!

A 5.7L engine uses a timing chain.

Thanks! So I shouldn't have to worry about it right? It should be good for the life of the truck? Does it need any kind of maintenance? Having had a timing chain snap on my Grand Am, I am a little leery of them.

Grand Am probably had nylon gears. Not sure if ur 5.7 does. What year?

chain

Truck is a 1995; Grand Am was a 2002.

I don't know for sure, but I'd guess that the sprockets are metal. Chances are, now this isn't a definite set-in-stone type deal, your timing chain is just fine.

Although your chances of having a worn out distributor are quite high. If you have a performance issue, we first need to know its symptoms.

IMO, your timing chain/gears should be fine. Small block chevy engines are tanks.

Thank you for telling me about the sprockets, that makes me feel a lot better. I am not having any type of performance issues with the engine at this point. The only reason I asked about the timing chain/belt was because they replaced the water pump a couple of months ago and had read something about that being a good time to replace the timing belt.

The issue right now is the replacement of the back end. Mechanic called to say it was ready, but when I drove it, something wasn't right. After looking further into it, they figured out the axle they put on was bent. :( So it is still getting fixed.

In reality, on a passenger car (a Chrysler car comes to mind) with a DOHC engine, or even a SOHC engine, the water pump is driven by the timing belt. On these engines, the belts go out allot more frequently than timing chains. Don't misunderstand timing chains though, they can break, but it's a whole lot less frequently than timing belts. On small passenger car engines, timing belts work just fine as long as you have them replaced at the right time outlined in the service/owners manual. At that time, yes, it is a great idea to replace the water pump, and miscellaneous pulleys that are under the timing cover.

But on your pick 'em up truck, your engine is designed to be a work horse. You get a timing chain, and sprockets (probably metal). Your engine is made of cast iron, and can easily live for over 200K miles.