[TPR] Fw: Poly Dist Gear???

Mad Dog Antenucci teampantera at yahoo.com
Mon Jun 20 13:28:16 PDT 2011


FYI....responses from Russ to the Pope
 
Mad Dawg Antenucci 
Team Pantera Racing 
The 1st & still the only vintage race team in open road racing 
www.teampanteraracing.com



----- Forwarded Message ----
From: russell fulp <musclebyrussell at hotmail.com>
To: adin at frontier.net
Cc: Dennis Antenucci <teampantera at yahoo.com>
Sent: Mon, June 20, 2011 1:05:12 PM
Subject: RE: Poly Dist Gear???

 
Answers below in color.

 
Russ 
B.L. Machine & Russ Fulp Racing Engines
1100 E. Orangefair Lane
Unit E
Anaheim, CA 92801
714-870-8570
 
 




________________________________
From: adin at frontier.net
To: teampantera at yahoo.com; tpr at teampanteraracing.com
CC: musclebyrussell at hotmail.com
Subject: Re: Poly Dist Gear???
Date: Mon, 20 Jun 2011 13:02:03 -0600

 
It would seem the cam gear ate the dizzy gear (sharp teeth on the dizzy  gear) 
but I wouldn't mind knowing the sequence of events.  Well you are partially 
correct. With the added pressure from the oil pump it try's to hold the dist. 
shaft in place and the cam says no way and it turns, machining the gear on both 
pieces in the process. You see with any friction surface you have to have the 
hardest surface on the stationary end or the cam. the steel gear by itself is 
softer than the cam gear but with added back-pressure from the oil pump ,it 
becomes about the same and that is why it ate up both surfaces. If you had an 
external oil pump you could run them together all day.

 
In addition it would be good to know:
Was the dizzy gear specified incorrectly?  Everything was probably O.K. to start 
with but the oil pressure was your culprit.

Supplied incorrectly?
The little oil squirter trick: why didn't Ford to that?They did not plan on them 
turning any kind of RPM that it would necessitate added lubrication.  Why do we  
have to (guess I know the answer to this one)?
do we know any history of these poly gears?  too new?   The Poly gear is softer 
and will mate with any cam core. Just make sure that you get a gear for a 
Cleveland or a big block as most of the gears out there are smaller O.D. and of 
the Windsor variety.

 
Curious.
----- Original Message ----- 
>From: Mad Dog    Antenucci 
>To: David in Durango ; TPR    List 
>Cc: russell fulp 
>Sent: Monday, June 20, 2011 10:08  AM
>Subject: Poly Dist Gear???
>
>
>Russ,
>If you read Mike loooong ;-)> report below you'll see his steel gear    ate his 
>cam ....I know that will come as no surprise to you and yea I remember    what 
>you said about NOT running a steel gear but my question is what if    anything 
>have you heard about the poly gear?
>
>
>
>
>Thanks
> 
>Mad Dawg Antenucci 
>Team Pantera Racing 
>The 1st &    still the only vintage race team in open road racing 
>www.teampanteraracing.com
>
>
>
>
>
________________________________
 From: David in Durango <adin at frontier.net>
>To: TPR List <tpr at teampanteraracing.com>
>Sent: Mon, June 20, 2011 7:46:23    AM
>Subject: [TPR] ? - for the    dawg
>
> 
>From: MikeLDrew at aol.com
>Subject:    [DeTomaso] Pantera fall down go boom :<(
>To: detomaso at realbig.com
>Message-ID:    <844d.67fcf0e2.3b2fdbb8 at aol.com>
>Content-Type:    text/plain; charset="US-ASCII"
>
>Hi guys,
>
>Those of you who were at    the POCA Fun Rally last weekend perhaps noted that 
>every single Pantera    that drove to the event, safely drove home at the end 
>of the weekend, save    one.
>
>Unfortunately, that one was mine. :<(
>
>I've been loving    my new 408 stroker Cleveland, which has utterly 
>transformed the    car.   I had a wonderful drive up and over the Sierras, 
>tempering my 
>
>enthusiam a bit in deference to the handful of Panteras that were running 
>with me (also a reflection of a recent run-in with Johnny Law that I    managed 
>to 
>
>escape from for about $300, but my next ticket will result in    points on my 
>license).
>
>At the track event, the first thing I did    was to bleed my brakes, as my 
>pedal was soft and squishy.   I    got a bit of trapped air out, which improved 

>things, but they are far from    where they should be.   I think this is a 
>result 
>
>of some    uncharacteristically horrible engineering that took place when my 
>friend    who restored the car years ago, fabricated new brake lines.   For 
>reasons unknown, he deliberately placed a big loop in each line, which is 
>seemingly guaranteed to trap air and result in a spongy pedal--exactly    what I 
>have 
>
>had all these years.   I think I am going to trash    all the hard lines and 
>start over.
>
>But anyway.   Once the    brakes felt up to the task (although far from 
>perfect), I started driving    on the track Thursday afternoon, and the car was 
>much, 
>
>MUCH faster than    two years ago.   I'm still very handicapped by my 
>super-crusty    tires (my intent was to burn them off at this event and then 
>replace 
>
>them    when I got home) which kept cornering velocities laughably low, but also 
>
>provided lots of opportunity for sideways antics at relatively low    speeds.
>
>Two years ago, I would enter the front straight in 3rd gear,    upshift to 4th 
>at about 5500 rpm, and just be nudging 110 mph when I felt    it was prudent 
>to lift for the first of the three S-curves leading to the    hairpin at the 
>end.   This year, with all the extra power, I was    topping 130 mph.
>
>Whee!
>
>The thing is, I would reach the 6000 rpm    rev limiter well before the 
>turn-in point.   My choices were to    either upshft to 5th gear for just a 
>moment, 
>
>then back down to 4th, or to    just coast for a bit.   Since nobody was paying 

>me for this and    there were no trophies on the line, I elected to do the 
>latter.   My car has an MSD system with the 'soft touch' rev    limiter; the 
>bumpf 
>
>that comes with the MSD box indicates that there is no    harm in just riding 
>the limiter, as it randomly cuts spark from various    cylinders to keep the RPM 
>
>at a predetermined maximum point.   So    often times, I'd keep my foot to the 
>mat and just ride the limiter for    100-200 feet or more, then lift off and 
>turn in.
>
>At the end of the    first day, the car was running just a little bit weird.   
>I was    having trouble with the idle speed, and in fact the next morning I 
>had to    turn the idle up quite a bit.
>
>I then went out for a second day of more    fun and games on the track, and 
>the motor seemed 'off' ever so    slightly.   I was driving with a raised 
>eyebrow, and then I came    down the front straight and noted that it was well 
>down on 
>
>power; with my    foot to the mat it was 20 mph off at the turn-in point.   I 
>determined that I would pull in at the end of the lap for a    look-see.
>
>Didn't happen. :<(
>
>When I got to the steep uphill,    the engine started stuttering, and I had my 
>foot on the floor trying to    keep it going to at least the top so I could 
>pull off.   But    just before the top, it went POP and quit, leaving me 
>stranded 
>
>on the side    of the track, and causing a yellow flag in that area for the 
>rest of the    session.
>
>I figured the distributor shear pin had sheared.      There were no other 
>indications, I had fuel, no clanking noises from the    engine, so it was pretty 
>
>apparently an ignition issue.
>
>They threw    the checkered flag and I coasted down the hill to a safe spot 
>and    abandoned the car until lunchtime.   Rich Boschert was kind enough    to 
>tow 
>
>it in to the paddock on his flatbed trailer, and then any number of 
>volunteers stepped in to help sort it out.
>
>Steve Liebenow offered    up some shear pins, and I figured I'd be rolling a 
>short time    later.   But then the distributor cam out.   Bad    news.   
>Distributor gear totally mangled. :<(
>
>Then we    started thinking about getting a replacement gear from Summit, just 
>down    the road.   But Chuck Melton took a look-see down into the engine,    
>and 
>
>what he saw was far from good--the drive gear on the end of the    camshaft 
>was destroyed as well. 
>
>Trailer time.    :<(
>
>Fortunately for me, Rich has to drive within a mile of my house    on his way 
>home.   He was kind enough to trailer my Pantera back    to the hotel, and then 

>back home Sunday afternoon, and allow me to follow    behind at the wheel of 
>his lovely green Pantera, so all things considered,    this went about as well 
>as could be expected under the    circumstances.   Sunday morning we had an 
>uneventful drive home,    and since we had two other truck/trailers and another 

>Pantera in convoy    with us, it was easy to unload the car and push it into the 
>
>garage, where    it now sits, sad and forlorn.
>
>Here's some photos of the gear on the    distributor.   All of the teeth were 
>filed razor-sharp, creating    much slop in the timing (the cause for my idle 
>problems no    doubt).   But then, a number of teeth simply sheared off 
>completely, which caused the car to stop dead.
>
>http://www.poca.com/index.php/gallery/?g2_itemId=32311
>
>When    you click on each photo, it opens up in a normal-sized view, but you 
>can    select the max size, which shows really excellent detail; you can clearly 
>
>see where the teeth were literally sheared off.
>
>I've since been in    touch with Dan Jones, John Christian and others, 
>attempting to determine    the cause of the problem.   I was using a steel 
>hydraulic 
>
>roller    cam core, and a Crane steel gear advertised to work well with such 
>things.   However, I did have a couple of things going against    me:
>
>1)   Excessive oil pressure.   I purposely    re-used the oil pump from my 
>previous engine because it delivered 50 psi    there (verified with a mechanical 
>
>gauge) and I did not want high volume or    high pressure, both of which are bad 
>
>for Clevelands.   However,    my new engine (perhaps due to tighter 
>tolorences) sees the oil pressure    gauge pegged.   Probably 80 psi at 
>operating RPM.   
>
>The literature that comes with the cam gear says that it will live with a 
>steel cam, EXCEPT if excessive pressure or volume oil pump is    used.   They 
>say 
>
>that rapid wear will then result--which I    got.   So, since oil pumps are 
>cheap, I'm going to start over    from scratch with a new Melling M-84A.   (The 

>Summit website is    incorrect and doesn't list this for the 351C, only showing 

>it as    applicable for the 351M and 400M.   But in fact this is a 351C pump, 
>as shown on Melling's website.)
>
>2)   Driving on the rev    limiter.   Although MSD says this about their 
>system:
>
>There are two ways to limit your rpms. The rough way simply    cuts off 
>ignition spark, which can cause backfiring, extreme engine    roughness, and 
>possible 
>
>engine damage. The gentle way is with these MSD    Soft Touch rev controllers. 
>They use sophisticated computer circuitry to    drop spark one cylinder at a 
>time, until your engine is at or below its    maximum rpm. Those cylinders are 
>then fired on the next cycle, to prevent    them from loading up with fuel. The 

>result is smooth rev limiting action    without all the rough stuff.
>
>The truth appears to be that even this    'gentle' process is rather hard on 
>the system, perhaps aggravated by the    fact that I'm running a gear drive 
>instead of a timing chain.      It didn't occur to me that running on the 
>limiter 
>
>for a few seconds at a    time would stress the system, but in hindsight (and 
>after consultations    with Dan, who hadn't heard of such a thing but 
>subsequently did research    and found other stories of people suffering similar 
>damage to 
>
>mine after    running on the rev limiter, regardless of whether they were 
>using a timing    chain, gears or whatever) I'm sure that my driving habits on 
>the 
>
>track    created this problem.   I'm going to address this by fitting a    
>higher 
>
>RPM pill in the MSD (the motor is built to go to 6500 all day long    but I was 

>being 'conservative' and had a 6000 rpm chip in the MSD) and by    avoiding 
>touching the rev limit, if at all possible, and certainly avoid    deliberately 

>doing so and just keeping it on the limit.
>
>I think the    gears were perfect when I drove over the hill to Reno, and I 
>just busted    them all to hell at the track.
>
>Tomorrow I'm ordering a new cam, same as    the old one (did I mention how 
>wonderfully this engine ran?).      Dan also turned me on to a new distributor 
>gear.   Tri-Tec    Motorsports now makes a carbon-reinforced polymer distributor 
>
>gear for the    351C/460.
>
>http://www.tritecmotorsports.com/Carbon_Ultra-Poly
>-Ford_Distributor_Gears.htm
>
>I    am going to phone them and see what they have to say.   I don't want    to 

>run a bronze gear, because of all the maintenance hassles, but a steel    gear 
>might not be as good a bet as one of these glorified plastic    ones.   At this 

>point I think I've got nothing to lose by    trying.
>
>The motor will come out of the car early next month (no time    before then), 
>by which point I should have my new components in    hand.   With the help of 
>friends more knowledgable than I am    (which is most of them, when it comes to 

>engines anyway!), I hope to have    it repaired and ready to go in a day, then 
>installed another day    later.
>
>I will have to pull the oil pan and clean all the metal shavings    out (and 
>also from the front of the engine), and the oil pump pickup is    likely filled 

>with debris.   It goes without saying that the oil    filter will be changed as 

>well.   While we'll take a look at the    bearings while we're in the 
>neighborhood, I'm fairly confident that the    rest of the motor was unaffected 
>by this 
>
>little glitch.
>
>We'll    see!?
>
>Once it's up and running, I'll pull the distributor every few    thousand 
>miles to inspect for any signs of untoward wear or    failure.   I'm hoping this 
>is 
>
>a one-time situation to be quickly    and relatively painlessly resolved.
>
>Fingers    crossed!
>
>Mike
>
>
>
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