[cwmcobra]

Tom,

What a "good news/bad news" story. You made it to the Fling....congratulations on pulling that off. I know you had a tough time making it happen. The distributor gear failure is a major downer. My opinion is you should blame the engine builder for not confirming the material and making sure it was right. As you know, I installed a Crane hydraulic roller cam system in my 521 as well. Now I work for Eaton and we make the Crane lifters and I know about the camshaft materials and compatible distributor gears. I knew a steel cam needed a steel gear and that's what I bought from Crane. Of course, I built mine from Ford's short block and use an MSD billet distributor with that steel gear. MSD sells a steel gear that is less expensive than the Crane part, but I figured I should run what Crane recommends.

I'm not near to being on the street yet, so have no experience with longevity, but if I was asked to rank my risks, the distributor gear would not be one of them. I hope I'm right and, if so, so will you be after having that Crane gear installed.

Keep us posted on the status of your rebuild.

Regards,

Chuck