My Father's Oldsmobile

[fleming442]

Anyone familiar with distributor gears, high volume oil pumps, and Comp roller cams? Yeah, I know- don't do that. This is bronze gear #2 in 11,075 miles. I'm about to send the iron gear ZFG.

 

[Rktpwrd]

High volume (not high pressure) pumps in Olds engines seem to be hard on the driving components. I have a Melling HV pump in my 455, and I’ve twisted the oil pump driveshaft in the distributor gear so badly it wouldn’t come out before. It didn’t twist the driveshaft or round out the gear because they were both hardened, but I’ve never eaten a distributor gear like that before.
Maybe check and add a camshaft thrust button if necessary?

 

[fleming442]

Well, I could never get a straight answer. Some (Travato) say you have to run bronze. Some say no because Comp doesn't use steel gears on their cores anymore. I don't know. I created more worry for myself by dropping the F-ing brass thrust washer I had in the oil pan. Meh, the pickup has a screen... The iron gear fits better for some reason; there's less vertical play than the bronze had. Full Send mode engaged. It's in and retimed; going for a blast, shortly.

 

[axisg]

ewww that sucks. When I swapped the cam on my heap and the retro-roller setup I ran the bronze gear that comp recommended for a couple months and it looked like yours pictured above. I switched to their "moly" gear and even this spring there was some wear but nothing like what you are seeing there. Hope you get it sorted

 

[Supercharged111]

High volume pumps only help when the bearing clearances are wide which only happens when you build a motor to zing to the moon. The crank needs more room to flex when it's spun up higher. I say this with a HV pump on the shelf and the motor it came off of was done at 5000.

 

[fleming442]

Donovan, I have the hardened shaft, and the end play was set when the engine was built. The bronze gear seemed to ride low before; that's why I had the brass thrust washer under it. I think my saving grace is how much the aluminum rods swell. For that reason alone, I want to run the high volume pump. I just don't know the ramifications of running the harder gear, if there are any. It's only got 30-40psi hot, all the way to 6k.
I knew the gear was reaching its life expectancy, and I was going to change it before Drag Week, anyway. I don't like all those bronze shavings going through the engine, either. Olds have an oil squirter on the distributor gears, so what's the worst that can happen?
I decided to check it today because it was breaking up around 55-6000 yesterday.

 

[fleming442]

After many tries with premolded hoses off the parts store wall, I finally got the right fittings to fix my janky, cobbled together mess of a lower radiator hose. The motor plate puts the alternator really close to the water pump inlet. That and Olds having a 2" inlet really complicate shizz. I got some ICT 1.75 barbed couplers, a 2-1.75 45 elbow, a 1.75 90, and a 1.75 45, then slapped some Gates Powergrip heat shrinks over the joints. A $100 radiator hose because the last one leaked. Hopefully, this one does the trick.

 

[64nailhead]

I missed the dizzy gear posts. What did you end up using? Did Comp recommend anything other than the bronze?

Like the hose if it doesn’t leak lol.

 

[fleming442]

So, back to the distributor gear... <deep breath> when I went to talk to the engine builder, he said he had an iron one lose all it's teeth. So, the old one went back in. I'm not real happy about the bronze shavings going through the engine, but they're softer than iron chunks.
MSD shafts are .500, and you know they're proud of the fact that their gear is drilled such. All the other/cheaper ones are drilled .491 for an HEI. I'm actually in the process of trying to open it up with a 1/2" bit. I got it most of the way there; I need to get the old gear off for a test fit. Just as an FYI: .491 gears can be had for ~$37 as opposed to getting a name brand for $85-120 (I just got a Crane, 85). I haven't been able to find a number on any of the ones I had, so I have no reason to not think they're all the same cores. If this works, I may just buy up some cheap ones, and drill them myself or see what a shop would charge to do it correctly. Most of the time is in the setup, so if I get a run of 4-6 done, it should be a better deal, no?

 

[Pc3]

have you checked depth possibly is pushing down to much on cam I always liked the collared dist..
No experience with olds engines but I have ran hyd roller and solid rollers sbc only time I had problem with gear was a bronze. I went back to steel never had an issue again.I would find specks on depth maybe your 2 deep.
specs called for a bronze for my retro CCHR300 1st few start ups and pushed dist out bronze gear showed wear after an hour..replaced with steel and bought a collar for dist never had an issuse again