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Rylic
Senior Member
Joined: 18 Mar 2006
Posts: 240
Location: Jackson, TN |
What Dist. Gear with Isky Hydraulic Cam?
I have a 280 Mega Hydraulic camshaft, and I was wondering if I can use the cast iron distributor gear, or if I need a steel one. This is on my 302.
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1967 Fairlane 500, 302 V8, Toploader transmission. Maybe I'll eventually get it on the road.
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Tue Apr 18, 2006 3:55 pm |
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fairlaner67
Member
Joined: 11 Mar 2006
Posts: 65
Location: longbranch NJ |
I thought only roller cams needed a steel distibutor gear.
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Sha. '67...460...top loader...3.25 9"
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Tue Apr 18, 2006 11:09 pm |
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Rylic
Senior Member
Joined: 18 Mar 2006
Posts: 240
Location: Jackson, TN |
Well, that was my thought, just wanting to double check.
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1967 Fairlane 500, 302 V8, Toploader transmission. Maybe I'll eventually get it on the road.
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Wed Apr 19, 2006 8:08 am |
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GerryProctor
Senior Member
Joined: 10 Mar 2006
Posts: 660
Location: San Antonio, Tx |
Steel roller cams require a
softer
distributor gear, like bronze or the composites, though some billet cams have an iron gear pressed on so it's not universal.
Iron cams, which nearly all flat tappet cams are, use the standard iron distributor gear. You don't need to change anything.
Make sure you put the cam lube on the distributor gear before you drop the distributor in. This will help make sure you don't chew up the cam gear.
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Wed Apr 19, 2006 8:59 am |
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Rylic
Senior Member
Joined: 18 Mar 2006
Posts: 240
Location: Jackson, TN |
Alright, I was thinking that was how it worked, but I was looking at Duraspark pages and ran across one talking about having to change gears depending on the cam used, and it said some aftermarket cams require different gears.
It'll definitely be lubed up. Hopefully I'll get it started up next weekend.
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1967 Fairlane 500, 302 V8, Toploader transmission. Maybe I'll eventually get it on the road.
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Wed Apr 19, 2006 3:58 pm |
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Kyle
Junior Member
Joined: 19 Apr 2006
Posts: 11
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quote:
Originally posted by GerryProctor:
Steel roller cams require a
softer
distributor gear, like bronze or the composites, though some billet cams have an iron gear pressed on so it's not universal.
Not necessarily true. My FMS E-303 camshaft was billet steel, and upon contacting both Ford Motorsports and Mallory (the mfgr. of my distributor), I was informed that for my application a steel gear would be required. You
can
run a bronze gear, but if you do alot of street driving you're gonna chew her up quick. Composite gears such as the ones that Comp Cams make are a viable option, but are often very pricey and not always available for the correct shaft diameter of your distributor.
In short, I'd contact ISKY and find out what they recommend. As an extra precaution - it's highly advisable to run a wire brush over the gear on the cam itself to to remove any sharp edges left after manufacturing;a lot of companies recommend this now.
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Wed Apr 19, 2006 9:18 pm |
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dave s
Senior Member
Joined: 10 Mar 2006
Posts: 163
Location: Tottenham Ont. Canada |
I've been running a bronze gear on a cast cam 3 years (two Power Tours), of 4000 miles total. I didn't realise this until this thread , I put my MSD. in a stock engine and didn't give a thought to the gear.
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Wed Apr 19, 2006 9:36 pm |
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Kyle
Junior Member
Joined: 19 Apr 2006
Posts: 11
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quote:
Originally posted by dave s:
I've been running a bronze gear on a cast cam 3 years (two Power Tours), of 4000 miles total. I didn't realise this until this thread , I put my MSD. in a stock engine and didn't give a thought to the gear.
You should probably just yank the distro and take a peek at the gear. They'll often hang in there until the bitter end, then give out with no warning.
What really affects the service life of a distributor gear is the oil pump it's driving. Most of the stock units don't stress them too much, but when you get into a high volume/high pressure unit you can run into issues. Same thing applies to the drive rods for the oil pumps, zing the engine high enough with an aftermarket pump and you'll eventually twist it with catastrophic results.
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Wed Apr 19, 2006 9:44 pm |
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