Some have went 50,000 miles no trouble,I thing over revving a big single is the worst thing you can do to it.

I thought it was the cam chain tensioner that is mostly the problem, not the cam chain itself?  Where's Verslagen when we need him...

babyhog wrote on 08/11/10 at 12:58:21:

It's a misconception that it's the tensioner that causes the problem.  When the chain (and guides) wear enough, the tensioner falls apart.  When it falls apart great damage can be done.

BTW, according to the SSM, you should have your head bolts retorqued every 5k miles.  While they are in there for that, they should check cam chain wear.  Of course no one does that.  And changing out the chain at that point is another 3 bolts.

Also note that stinger is one of the high mileage champs with the cam chain.  And also note that when bill says not to over rev the engine, he means 70% of max rpm, shouldn't go over 66 mph.  Stinger does most of his travels at 70 and higher.  Stinger says he uses straight 50 wt. oil.

bill67 wrote on 08/11/10 at 14:08:27:

lmfao  

If you can change your own oil and filter, you can install a verslavy and get the max life out of your cam chain. I'm no mechanic, and I think it took me all  of 30 minutes to do the job. There is a very easy to follow how to in the Tech section. I plan to check it again at 25,000 (coming up soon), and see what the extension on the tensioner is at. When the time comes to replace the cam chain, I hope Lancer has some.
I never did anything more than change oil and filter, put air in the tires, and gas in the tank before I got my Savage. I've learned a great deal from this bike and this forum.

So if I replace the cam chain with one of Lancer's would it still be a good idea to verslavy it?

OR...verslavy first, ride it until I need to move to the new hole on the vers and then replace the chain???

OR... verslavy it ride till it goes into the second hole, ride till it starts to rattle, THEN get a new chain from Lancer?

Getting those last miles of wear from the cam chain sounds like a good idea. But there may be a cost. A short while back Cycle World magazine had a piece on cam chains. I don't have the magazine, so I have to try to remember what they said. As the cam chain wears, it becomes longer (it doesn't stretch - it wears). As it becomes longer, the cam lags behind its optimum timing. I believe they mentioned about 4 degrees of lag, depending on cam chain length, at the service limit. This amount of cam timing retard is said to produce a deterioration in performance, which cannot be corrected by any means other than replacing the chain. Just something else to think about.