Those are actually pretty cool in terms of what they do! They kinda completely eliminate vibration robbing from crankshaft to camshaft and vice versa, so it's like a secondary vibration damper. However, with a chain drive these vibrations are not that noticeable as if the engine had direct gear-to-gear drive by design.
Those plastic covered OEM camshaft timing gears ARE the death and WILL be the DEATH of many nailheads now and years to come.....when they fall apart....and they all do....the crank to cam timing slips and things start hitting each other.......if you have an original motor that the cam gear has never been changed to an ALL steel one.......you are living on borrowed time ! Peace WildBill
Planned obsolescence. Not a lot of difference between the auto offerings and the industrial versions of the same but the elimination of the chain to a gear set and valve material. Many of the industrial versions go 750k to a million + in fleet or unsupervised in the field. Usually lack of rad. hose maintenance takes them out. ou: [Coolant hoses in general, Thanks Doc ]
Actually I have seen more engines destroyed by busted heater/ rad/ bypass hoses than anything else..... next up would be failure to check/change oil.....
