When I read the first post, the OP described the problem as flooding, but re reading it, that is obviously not what happened. Flooding is when the needle/seat/float doesn’t do its job. The result of that is fuel flowing out of the bowl/vent and onto the engine. It’s obvious now what happened was the engine wasn’t firing and fuel accumulated in the cylinders and crankcase. A little miscommunication is all.
Something isn't turning freely, either the distributer or the oil pump is binding. Also as has been reported in other threads, some after market timing cases are off with regard to the alignment, and this could cause a lot of drag.
I re-read the post and he said it hydrolocked or came close to it. Fuel dumped out of the plug hole? There's no way that much unburned fuel ends up in there with the exception of gas being poured down the gullet. This is still weird to me.
I agree with the why did I get this much fuel to nearly hydro lock the engine. With the engine running as well as it was, It never occurred to go right back to the basics of getting tdc on #1 and checking the position of the rotor. After fully checking the carb to make sure there wasn't any problem, I hooked up an electric fuel pump and regulator and did a static check on the bench, I found zero issues with it. That's when I went in the direction of timing. Logically with no spark and plenty of fuel going in, it would load up up with fuel. I have checked the oil pump with a screw driver and it is not bound in any way. When the new gear get hear, I am going to blue it and install, crank it and see how it rides on the cam. Hopefully I will not see any problems with the mating of the two gears. 500 miles, even for a bronze gear seems very unusual. Also, Max Damage may be on to something, I will have to check the cover. Thank you all again for the further insight. I guess these are the hi's and lows of owning a classic.
Bronze distributor gears are typically used when steel billet roller camshafts are installed that don't have an iron gear pressed on them. The bronze gear is supposed to be "sacrificial" and wear much quicker than the hardened steel cam drive gear teeth. Even so I've had near perfect success with bronze gears and ran decades with them on billet steel cams w/o issue. What I've found here is that very quick wear is cause by one two things. Buying a cheap/soft imported bronze gear, and/or not taking the time to effectively prepare the camshaft distributor drive gear teeth. Almost all the roller cams I've purchased had machining/tooling marks on the cam gear teeth and "rough" finish. I found this out decades ago with the very first one I purchased. I didn't pay the gear on the cam much mind and built and installed the engine. It "ate" the bronze gear up in 200 miles! In the process it pretty much "polished" the cam drive gear teeth and the next one lasted quite a while. After that deal I started taking a fine jewelers file to the cam drive gear teeth to remove any sharp edges, then a trip to the bead blaster to "smooth" the teeth up with ultra fine glass beads. After that process I did a visual inspection of the gear teeth to make sure they were smooth and no tooling/machining marks, etc. I attached a pic of the bronze distributor gear from the last engine that was in the Ventura. It had been in service over 10 years at this point with many thousands of street runs and hundreds of trips to the track, and no wear anyplace, just very light "witness" marks on the gear teeth. At this rate it will last at least another 20 years and 100,000 miles or so!.........
Thank you Cliff for the response and pic. I will take a pic of the one I am removing , it looks like paper compared to yours, after 10 years. I dont know why I have a bronze gear, When I had sent it out and talked with that shop, I discussed what I was running and everything is stock, stock TA Stage 1 cam, Stock heads heads, Stock carb, no headers, etc. Unfortunately the engine builder missed it also, very bummed about it. He is going to install the new TA gear and make sure it is to spec and install back in the car. Everything " should " be good to go after this. I am just glad this happened in the driveway and not some remote spot on the road. I appreciate everyone's advise and comments .
Update, New dist gear on, install in engine. Car back to normal. Now on the finishing for the spring. Thank you everyone for the insight.
