z driver 88t

I was checking the timing belt tension over the weekend. Everything looked good and the cam sprockets / teeth looked to be in good condition, but I did notice the anodizing seems to have worn off.

I have a 16V 1984 US model.

I did some forum searching on cam gear / cam sprocket info and gather the following:

1. There seem to be 2 types of gears, square tooth and round tooth. My car is definitley round tooth. I'm not sure if this was an upgrade or stock since I've heard the older non-interference engines were square tooth. What year was the switch to round tooth?

2. I expect I'll need to replace the gears at the next timing belt job. Is there any way to improve the longevity of the cam gears? Has anyone had them re-anodized or even powder coated if they are in good shape?

3. Have there been any aftermarket solutions such as steel gears or I seem to recall someone mentioning 944 or 968 gears in one post a long time ago. I seem to remember the 968 cam gears were steel and MAY fit??? Any thoughts on this?

Its not that big of a deal just to get new cam gears once every belt change or every other belt change. It just seems like a waste of money if there was a better solution coming to Porsche from the Nissan where world no one ever heard of a cam gear actually wearing out.

Landseer

They last 10s of thousands of miles. Keep the inlet air tubes connected to the intact cam gear covers to pull any dust inside the area toward the air cleaner.

Steel gears suffer the same fate. Especially the crank gears. Cut my fingers on one yesterday it was so sharp.


Some have been succesful coating them. But it can't have much of a payback, if any.