Has anyone tried the gear drives between the cam and drive shaft on the 351C, eliminating the timing chain. Also how do these gears stay in line with the other two gears, it seams like it would walk out and hit the cover or block.
Original Post
Replies sorted oldest to newest
Trust me- a gear-drive on a Pantera will literally drive you out of your car after an hour or so. The gears are straight-tooth and therefore howl, and they are about 12" from your ear. One Pantera guy who runs them also drives with professional earplugs on....There are two types: loud, and REALLY loud. Unless you regularly attend rock concerts so your hearing is already likely destroyed, this is not a good choice in a street Pantera IMHO. The idler gear(s) are held in place with a small plate & each run on shaft using an e-clip so they can't migrate back & forth. The latest thinking is that the more direct connection between the cam and crank with gears is not the advantage it was once thought to be. If you must have something different, SVO has long sold a timing-belt drive system for racing that works in oil, so no plate with seals etc is needed. This reportedly is the lowest horsepower consumer system known and the precision is as good or better than gears. But in a Pantera, you can hear the belt whispering a little, too....
If your interested in hearing about it, I have a gear drive in mine. It's loud but I don't have an expensive stereo either to listen to. I happen to like it (for about an hour).
quote:
Originally posted by David:
If your interested in hearing about it, I have a gear drive in mine. It's loud but I don't have an expensive stereo either to listen to. I happen to like it (for about an hour).
I have a cam gear drive in my pantera for about 6 years, you can hear it, but I can't say that it's that loud.
Paul.