I just installed a hydraulic roller cam in my 289....this morning while watching "muscle car" on t..v., they installed a bronze gear on the distributor, claiming the hardened camshaft would eat up the stock steel gear....anyone heard of this when installing a hyd. roller cam?

 

Yes,the gear must be a softer material. The cam manufacturer will usually specify the type of gear material. They also have a composite gear now.

 

thanks for the info....i'll definately check...I didn't know if the t.v. program was just plugging for the parts people, or if I really needed that part....

 

Softer? You mean harder. Flat tappet cams are ground from cast iron. Roller cams are hardened steel. The steel gear on the cam will turn your cast iron distributor gear into little bits of metal in short order. You need a bronze or composite gear.

 

Or a hardened steel gear designed for a roller cam... It is my understanding that the bronze gears don't last very long....

On GM products they recomend a "mellonized" gear, Ford IDK.... and for that matter I don't know what mellonized means either....

Let me think,,,, did I put a hardened gear into the 408??? can't remember.... Guess I better check my work, that might have gotten past me.... even though I knew better....

 

[align=left]+1 for James. I just went though this very thing. I bought a distributor off some yahoo who said it was a MSD 8598. The 8598's have steel gears. You run steel gears with roller cams because cast iron gears won't hold up. When I got the damn thing it was a 8582 with a cast iron gear! I made him pay for a steel gear. Instead of ordering it from MSD, I got it from Ford Racing cheaper. It was the same dimensions as the MSD steel gear. The cast iron gear was a bear to remove. I had to heat it up cherry red and pound it off. When I say pound, I mean POUND. What distributor do you have John?

 

Ford uses steel. I'm running the MSD steel for my 302, it's a stock replacement, and my Crane is an 8160 alloy I think? Hard. Dizzy and cam gear is fine. You need same/same metal basically, and the proper thrust on both the cam and distributor. Comp has a new polymer, but I dunno if it's any good. Just use a steel dizzy gear on a steel roller cam, that's what the factory roller engines had. Bronze is more for racing, where you're concerned about excessive loads, the bronze is softer than steel, and it's easier to pull a dizzy than a cam

 

Can I use a steel gear distributor with an iron tappet cam? Stock cam in a 67 289, i am trying to find a distributor that will work. Will the steel gear damage my cam?

 

Yes, it will chew up the drive gear on the camshaft. You need an iron gear for that cam.

 

Who makes the roller cam you bought???