So I call MSDs tech line again today, just to make sure I'm getting the right gear for my application. They guy at MSD insists that I should use a cast distributor gear, and the ones that come with their distributors are hardened to a "rosswell hardness" of between 50 and 57, with most of them being around 56. When I tell him about what happened to the gear originally, he said my cast cam was too hard, probably hardened to over 60+. So I called Comp Cams tech line, and the guy there said he couldn't tell me what the roswell hardness of the cam was, and I should use a steel gear. When I told him the guy I talked to previously at comp cams sold me a composite gear, saying "it would work with any metal type", he said the composite gear would probably be too hard for my cam. I guess my real frustration is not being able to get any sound advice from the sources! It seems the real story is that you should use like hardness metals for the cam and distributor gears. But what about bronze distributor gears with billit steel cams? Those can't be like hardnesses.
Does anyone know anybody that has the "real story"? Each time I call the tech lines for the manufacturers, I get a different story. It's like the engine builder said, "It's really hard to find good aftermarket performance parts anymore. They've all gone 'production', and don't pay enough attention to quality." Geeze, isn't that the truth!
I've got a steel gear on the way, and will be using it for the next dyno run....probably June 14th. I'll keep you posted.
Now my wife has jinxed this whole project (Superformance 1649 to be delivered this month, Ford 408 Windsor in progress, TKOII waiting in my garage). She says she's got a bad feeling in her gut about all of this!
The good news is that the tuner and builder searched through the engine and found zero damage. The filter system did it's job, and the
oil pan caught the rest. This thing ought to be rock solid bullet proof once we get the whole distributor gear thing figured out. I just pray the engine gods don't decide to mess with me and prove my wife right!