Bronze Dist Gear

And the replacement steel gear.

...when I rebuilt My Cleveland the First time, I was sure to drill the .030 Inch hole in the screw-in Oil Gallery plug opposite the Dist. Gear. This Guarantees a steady stream of Lubricant will cover it...

I should have done that Marlin, next time.

Because I have the Dart Iron Eagle/Windsor style block I was able to utilize Comp Cams Poly Gear on my dizzy.

The first bronze gear was gone in about 1000 miles.

I am hopeing the new gear lasts about 10K. We shall see.

74 LQQKR,

What is you cam material (steel, autempered ductile iron, proferal iron, etc.)?

Dan Jones

Dan,
I have a steel Crane roller cam with a steel gear. Crane said that a steel dist gear will be compatible. Seems ok so far. I'll pull the dist in about 1000k to check.

Hi Marlin, tell me more about that 0.030 hole in the screw-in ol gallery plug. I'm in the process of rebuiding my pantera engine and want to do it good...Do you drill that hole in the center of the plug? if you face the front of the engine, is it the plug on # 1 to # 4 cylinder banks side or the one on the # 5 to # 8 cylinder banks side? is that hole has to be oriented on a certain angle?

Thank's Serge

> I have a steel Crane roller cam with a steel gear.
> Crane said that a steel dist gear will be compatible.
> Seems ok so far. I'll pull the dist in about 1000k to check.

Let us know how it works out. Crane makes a steel gear that
is compatible with 8620 steel cores. Crane uses those cores
on both hydraulic and solid roller cams. We're using the
Crane gear on the dyno mule with a Reed hydraulic roller
(8620 core). The Ford gear is designed for the OEM hydraulic
cores. Some say it should not be used with 8620 steel cores
but others have used it successfully. Deburring the gears and
packing with moly lube never hurts.

BTW, the dyno mule is assembled and only needs a set of
spark plugs and a clearance check of the valve covers to
fire. Should run it in early next week!

Dan Jones

.... also FWIW, Ford Racing 2008 offers an 'extreme-duty' poly gear- p/n M-12390-L (pg 146) for 0.531-dia dizzy shafts, for about the same price as Crane (may be the same gear). Its listed as a Windsor gear but the shown dimensions are wrong for a Windsor & correct for a Cleveland. If anyone tries this gear on a 351-C, we'd like to know your results. Note that any gear used in a Cleveland MUST be 1.421" OD across the teeth. A 1.249"-dia Windsor gear will fit a Cleveland cam and will operate the oil pump and distributor... for maybe 150 miles. See the Dec POCA Newsletter for more info on this uncommon problem.
Note also that some aftermarket cams apparently had the integral distributor drive gear ground at the wrong angle; one hydraulic cam Pantera completely failed a stock iron gear in 5.0 miles! Checking for a cam gear's pressure-angle is nearly impossible at home, and the problem was spread across at least three different cam grinders. Blank cams are made by only a few places and used by all grinders; apparently not all the bummers have yet been purged from U.S stock. Caveat Emptor!
Third note: an oil squirt from drilling the left side oil gallery setscrew wil be nowhere near in line with the cam/distributor gear mesh. So fooling around with the angle of the hole- in two planes, is necessary to get a squirt on the gears. And since its in a main oil gallery, I'd suggest no more than a 0.020" dia hole so as to not wick off too much pressure or flood the front crank seal & oil slinger, causing a main seal leak.

Dan,

What did you mean about a "clearance check" on the valve covers? Are you not running tall covers? or are you running a stud girdle?

Thanks

...What is the Confusion? 1. The plug to Drill is on the left side of the Engine Block directly Behind the Distributor Gear and Shaft.(this shot of oil, will also help keep the timing chain, lubed) 2. Drill a .030" Hole! Drill .020" and You'll be closer to Having It Clog Up. Do You know just how Small a .020" DrillBit Is? 3. This small stream of oil will have little effect on the Total Oil Pressure, I see 45 Lbs. at Idle, Hot. 4. Cause a Main Seal Leak? What, are You Kidding Me? A little 'Tinkle' of oil is a lot less pressure on any seal than the Crankcase Pressure, itself. 5. I Only offer up advise on this forum, that I have personaly tried on My own Pantera/351 Cleveland; and Know, Works. One may take it or leave it!...

> What did you mean about a "clearance check" on the valve covers?
> Are you not running tall covers? or are you running a stud girdle?

We're not running a stud girdle. I'm not near my records at the
moment so I'm not sure which set of valve covers I sent down.
I may have sent both the tall and Boss style Ford Motorsport
valve covers. The clearance check is between the roller rocker
arms and the oil baffles near the PCV valve grommet and the oil
fill grommet. We have several sets of 1.65:1 and 1.73:1 roller
rockers to test, including a set of bolt-down adjustables. Those
allow us to run roller rockers on the iron heads without having
to mill and drill all of them for studs and guide plates.

Dan Jones

Got cha Dan. These will be very intersting tests. Can't wait for the results. FYI, I'm using Ford Racing tall valve covers with a Jomar stud girdle and every thing clears.

Dan,

I am also using Crane Gold Roller rockers with a roller cam. You mentioned the rocker arm ratio's. I'm using the stock 1.73 rocker and I know that different ratios can change cam lift but have not quite understood something. I take it that the different length of rocker is on the pushrod side of the rocker stud. This is because you need to keep the same distance from the stud to the valve stem, right? Thanks for the lesson.

...Here You can see the Dist. Drive Gear Seat. To the Right is the Allen Head Plug at the end of the oil Gallery. Unscrew it Chuck it up in the Lathe and drill a .030" Hole directly through it's center; You'll need a Precision 'Micro' Chuck, Held in A Jacobs Chuck, or Better, a Collet. Spin it Fast and feed the Drill Very Slowly. Don't forget the 'Cutting Fluid'. As You can see in the picture, the center of the Plug is aimed Right at the Circumference of the Gear. The Small Stream of Oil hits It Right in The Teeth! If Youy hear an Intermittent 'Chatter' That sounds like a rocker Arm going out, This is It! The Gear Not getting enough Lubricant! After This Modification, I never heard another Odd Sound out of the Distributor Drive; Again!...

2

Thank you very much for your trick Marlin. I just came back from the store to get # 68 drill, this morning, to do that little modification. You won't be alone anymore with this mod.
Thank's again.
Serge

Same here Jack, I'm putting together another engine, will use your advise here wth .030" drill.

Thanks Mark

...One more tip: When you get to the point where you use a drill motor and Oil Pump Drive Shaft to 'PreLube' Your engine Bearings; have a Pressure gauge mounted at the port at the extreme rear of the block, plug all other ports such as the port nearest the oil filter. Then when you see the pressure come up on the gauge, look down into the Distributor hole and you will see that stream of oil shoot out of your drilled hole! Good-Luck with it!...