timing chain question

anyones knows how long a timing chaine on a /6 should last,mi engine has 83K miles(1979 super six), sounds nice but prefer to be safe than sorry(a friend of mine just blew a timing belt, 1900$ for a Kia!!)...thanks ......corrosive

It depends on a number of things.
You can check how much 'slop' there is by rotating the crank clockwise until the timing pointers are aligned. Then slowly rotate the crank backwards while watching the dist. rotor. As soon as it moves, stop. The degrees of slop can be seen.
<5=tight
5-10=normal
over 15=bad

Timing chains also give a lot more 'warning' than cam belts as they stretch and get rattly for quite a long time before they snap , cam belts don't give any warning at all , to be honest in 30 years of being in the motor trade/building drag cars i haven't seen a timing chain snap as people change them when they start getting noisy , Do the check that Rod said and if it ain't broke don't fix it

The only timing chains that tend to break are the 'silent' factory sets. They have a cam gear that is aluminum with plastic coated teeth. The chain doesn't break, the cam gear strips.
http://www.slantsix.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=19714&view=previous&sid=b1289370bbe466900caf533676d3ed04

big thanks guys, will do the distributor twist soon...corrosive