[TPR] Fw: Poly Dist Gear???

[Kirby Schrader]

Well, ONE voice of experience, albeit limited....

If the brass/bronze gear looks to be wearing properly, I smile and keep driving. I am doing the 'drill the hole in the oil passage plug' modification to make sure it is at least squirting/spraying more oil into the gears general direction. (Reminds me of Monty Python there...)

After many thousands of miles, I then claim to be a professed expert with many miles of brass gear experience!
:-)))

Yeah, the brass bits are softer than the hard metal bits and should be heading straight for the oil pan, the pump and filter.
Depending on how bad and how fast, I would either question my distributor setup or say it's fine.

But hey... I should have noticed that things were not right before that, right? Because I was checking.
More maintenance, but hey... it's all about the performance, no?

I've seen two distributor gears installed incorrectly. One was too high and even though the distributor was all the way 'down' and seated in the block, the gear was too high and it wore out very quickly.

The second one was on the white GT5S that I worked on... the gear was too low on it and when you tightened the distributor hold down clamp, you really loaded up the bushing in the distributor. The gear was fine. The distributor was shot...

When I changed from a distributor to a cam sync on my GT40 (for the EFI), rather than pull the whole engine apart and prove to myself the length was OK, Quella sent me an old dummy distributor that I used to measure the distance from the block gear face to the top of the block where the distributor sits.

I've had no problems so far, as I noted earlier, with the steel gear working fine. I've got a couple of thousand miles more on it. Time to check again.

FWIW,
Kirby


On Jun 21, 2011, at 9:03 AM, <cengles at cox.net> wrote:

> Dear Kirby,
> 
> 
> Ah, the voice of experience. The roller cam conversion *continues* to be treacherous in my opinion. Just when I think that "they" have solved the issues, then the old ones and/or new ones seem to appear in an expensive way in the lap of some poor owner. Sigh.
> 
> I just learned today that the roller cam conversion in a Cleveland (and other old Fords, I believe) requires a hardened cam thrust plate! The roller cam can wear right through the ordinary stock one. Sigh, it is always something.
> 
> Two dumb questions about your brass gear use, Kirby.
> 
> One: as you use the brass gear and all appears to be wearing properly, then what?
> 
> Two: if you use a soft brass gear and if it wears abnormally and badly and quickly, then are the kindly and gentle little brass bits better to float around in the oil than hardened steel bits? I think the answer is probably yes, but is the brass so kind that you simply change the gear and the oil and re-start the engine?
> 
> 
> Warmest regards, Chuck Engles
> 
> 
> 
> ---- Kirby Schrader <kirby.schrader at gmail.com> wrote:
> > Well, I'm hearing all the assumptions, theories, personal experiences, etc. etc., but I'm leaning towards the material side of things.
> i.e., although they say they are compatible, they might not be?
> 
> I would like to point out that I ran 90psi oil pressure hot in my 351C for 15 years without a problem. Startup cold would peg the 100psi gauge for a good five minutes. Never had any distributor gear problems. Not a single one.
> I did not have a roller cam though... It was a flat tappet solid lifter cam ... with triple valve springs. 7000rpm was my shift point of choice.
> So I personally rule out the 'too much oil pressure' theory.
> 
> Fast forward to the most recent engine in the Pantera.
> The steel gear on the hydraulic roller that was in the Pantera looks fine and it will stay in the motor.
> The steel gear on the solid roller in the GT40 still looks fine, so it will stay.
> I will keep checking them both until I'm confident.
> 
> Although I keep hearing about 'compatible' and 'it should work'... This stuff is happening too much and for too long now.
> 
>  I'm going with a bronze gear in the new Cleveland going into the Pantera and live with the maintenance issue until I'm confident.
> 
> The material they make the roller cams out of is obviously the main problem and getting a distributor gear to mate with it and live is the issue.
> Of course, as we all know, the BEST solution is a dry sump motor. No need for a distributor gear!
> 
> I rarely hit the rev limiter. The one in the Pantera is so dramatic, it takes your breath away. i.e., the ECU shuts off the fuel.
> Yes, I know... it's an ancient Haltech F9a, but it works and I don't care what y'all think.
> I can tell you that it is anything but 'soft'. It's more like a launch through the windshield.
> 
> The GT40 uses an Electromotive 'soft' setup. It uses fuel and spark. Much for touchy feely.
> 
> OK, that's me done ranting for the morning. Man.... that soap box seemed to have grown!
> 
> 
> 
> On Mon, Jun 20, 2011 at 17:25, Charles Engles <cengles at cox.net> wrote:
> Dear Dennis and Russ,
> 
>  
>  
>                   I am such a dope.   I hear that the non standard oil pump, i.e. high volume and/or high pressure pumps, puts extra stress on the gear interface.  I guess that I am not  able to appreciate that it would be *that* much greater.   I do however yield to experience.
> 
>  
>                   I can see that an external pump should solve that problem.  I think that would actually be a dry sump system?
> 
>  
>                  For the rest of us thinking about the choppy waters of roller cam conversions, it would seem to me that the answer is prevention with gear compatibility, gear fitment (both gear to gear and gear to block), attention to normal oiling passages ; attention to the special oiling hole at the end of the left lifter galley; bushed lifter bores, a good normal volume and pressure oil pump and attention to detail.
> 
>  
>  
>                           Warmest regards,  Chuck Engles: Rookie Engine Builder
> 
>  
> PS: just now the newest issue of Circle Track has an article “The New School Cleveland”.   No discussion of roller cams, but an interesting Cleveland engine building  article for circle track.
> 
>  
>  
>  
>  
> From: tpr-bounces at teampanteraracing.com [mailto:tpr-bounces at teampanteraracing.com] On Behalf Of Mad Dog Antenucci
> Sent: Monday, June 20, 2011 3:28 PM
> To: tpr at teampanteraracing.com
> Subject: [TPR] Fw: Poly Dist Gear???
> 
>  
> 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.
> 
>  
> 

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