lower timing chain question (74 GTV)

[<lutkin@domain.elided>]

Greetings,

I have a 74 GTV with ~210K miles on it.  I recently had it smogged and in doing the work to pass the smog test the shop informed me that I have a loose lower timing chain and that this is a significant potential problem that requires major engine disassembly to fix.  They presented this as a potential reason to rebuild the engine, they also told me that other than this there is no real need to do a rebuild as the engine runs strong, compression is good (150-170 on each cylinder), etc.  I have not had the engine apart since I've had it (~150K miles and 13 years) so as far as I know the bottom end is all original, bigger valves were put in by the PO.  So my question is am I driving around in something that is likely to either have a catastrophic failure or create big problems down the road.  Thanks for you opinions.

Eric


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