> This whole cam gear issue can be weird. We have had to use the steel gear
> on some of the flat-tappet stuff that we were getting from Comp Cams and
> Lunati on the SBF cams.
Interesting. I had a Lunati flat tappet cam eat its gear on a 351C and
a friend had several Comp flat tappets do the same on a 351W. I never
considered using the Ford steel gears on those cams since they were flat
tappet iron cores. Now that I think of it, MSD claims the Ford steel gears
are actually softer than their iron gears so that would imply it's safe
to run the Ford steel gear on an iron core
> We started have cam gear life problems with the standard flat-tappet style
> cams from both companies about 4 years ago. They tried to blame on to much
>
oil pump pressure and things like that.
>
> We had several customers just have the gear that cam on there distributors
> from MSD wear out within 100 miles and break. We started using the steel
> gears on these camshafts and no more problems with gears at all.
Do you use the Crane, MSD or Ford steel gears?
> We told both Comp and Lunati about it and I think they thought we were
> crazy. I told them when they got tired of customers *****ing about gear
> problems just tell them to use the steel gear.
At least Crane has got the message. They recommend their steel distributor
gears for both iron flat tappet and steel roller cores. I went with Crane's
hydraulic roller lifters, steel cam, distributor and steel gear so hopefully
they'll play nice together. We plan on drilling a feed hole to supply
oil
directly to the gear and will check the wear pattern after run-in.
> We have been running the steel gear on the -9 cam cores for the FE hydraulic
> rollers now for about 2 years with no problems.
Good to know. The only steel gear I've found for the FE is the Crane.
Is that what you use or does someone else make an FE steel gear?
Another question about your experience with aluminum block FE's. Is it
necessary to sleeve the lifter bores when running roller lifters? I've
run flat tappet cams in aluminum block lifter bores before with no problems
but this Fontana block is the first time I've tried a hydraulic roller lifter
in an aluminum bore.
> We also make sure that we do not go through the harden on the cam cores when
> we do the camshafts. They have some different cores for different duration
> and lift camshafts. Just like right now we are waiting on some of these
> cores for our hydraulic rollers because all they have are too big and will
> grind through the hardening.
Good to know.
Much apreciated,
Dan Jones
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