Which distributor gear to use? (for Crane 449561)

[drk421]

So I had a bad experience in the past running a steel gear on a Comp Cams roller cam, bottom line was that it wore the cam down and I had to replace the cam bearings and a hole bunch of other fun stuff. Anyway, I replaced the Comp Cam with a Crane 449561 (http://www.summitracing.com/parts/CR...art=CRN-449561). I've been running a bronze gear, which is starting to wear down (pretty thin), and I would like to replace it with a steel gear or composite gear. I've read that a composite gear (expensive $$$) is safe to run, but will only last about 15k miles. I would rather run a steel gear that would last longer... Does anyone know if I can run a steel gear with this particular camshaft safely? (I did manage to buy a Crane steel gear a while back). Thanks, - drk421

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[jcthorne]

OEM Ford for roller cams was a steel gear. Crane makes most of the Ford Racing cams which also use a steel gear on the roller cams. Ask Crane but if its going to last, you need the steel gear. The cam has to be hardened in the gear area to be compatible with a steel gear.

[67mustang302]

Use a steel gear if you got it. Steel on steel was stock, and Crane uses a hardened 4615 steel I think on their hyd roller cams. I've run a steel gear on my Crane cam and my Crane dizzy has a newer gear that's some kind of iron alloy that supposedly will work on iron or steel gears, and I've been running that forever now too on the same cam with 0 issue.

A lot of the time gear failure if it's not a result of material compatibility, is a result of incorrect cam and/or distributor shaft thrust, or sometimes oil return. If the gears don't mesh properly and get good oiling, they burn up and come apart.