Ok, went out for a dig cause pretty nice Michigan weather for November. Wanted to change oil & filter for winter hybernation . Ended up with this ......Haven't torn it apart yet , although SP3 needs to be done. Seems strange. The Erson roller was way off by a full tooth when degreed and installed. Cam button set at .006, didn't anticipate this. I'll get to the bottom of this when I fully disassemble. .....bummer! Had AAA come over and move the GS into my garage for disassembly, luckily after I coasted into my drive after running thru the gears. Oil pump rotates fine, 4 or 5 teeth on MSD distributor gear look good, the rest are fubar. Figured at first the roll pin on dist. gear sheared, but no.
You should be running a bronze gear on a billet roller cam, unless the cam still retains the factory bolt on steel gear of course
we have that issue all the time. several factors are the cause. we run high oil pressure which makes a drag on the gear. we run high rpm which makes drag on the gear and there not all timing covers are the same. we have run different distributors, oem and a/m and some were tight on installation. just pulled the dragster engine down after 3yrs and it has gear wear. but not as bad as others we've used. I've tried installing the magneto and that goes in hard with this timing cover. I may have to build another t/c for the mag. hey....but what do I know......lol
uneven wear - could dist shaft be tilted ? timing cover opening off ? probably would not take much . just thinkin . slow at work this morning .
Ouch, that don't look good. Looks as though the cam is moving foreword really hard on part of the rotation. Wonder how much the gears in the oil pump are getting worn too. Probably going to have to take a look at that front cam bearing. This is what mine looks like I have the large gears with larger oil passages. I do not know how much was done with yours, but it does look like the cam is moving oddly for some reason. Some thing is binding up, can't believe it is from oil pressure.
Pristine GM cover, MSD fits real nice, it's straight. Oil pump shaft is straight, no worn tang on dist. shaft or pump shaft end. Pump turn real smooth. This MSD & GM cover was on eng. when I was running the Voodoo cam. 4,5k on that cam/eng., about 2,5k on this roller setup. Oil pump, cover and dist. all looked like new when taken out of the Voodoo eng. Hot oil pressure has been good, 15psi @ 750 rpm, 20@ 1k, white spring. 65 @ startup, 40 lbs cruising down road at 2k. I'm tearing into it now while the weather holds here in MI. I'll check cam button, had it set @ .004, and cam snout runout. May need the oiler for extra lube. What is puzzling is the very slight, almost normal wear on 4 or 5 teeth!
Maybe the cam gear wobbling a little somehow? I would think it is coming from the cam. That would be a bitch if the end of the cam is not square and the gear is moving or off center. The normal wear of the 5-6 teeth makes me think the cam is binding, moving the wrong way, gear off center, has to be within the cam all else was good with the old set up.
I checked cam lobe height on V- blocks when bought. .336 on all lobes. Plus cam straightness, was within .001 for length of cam. Never checked cam snout or cam gear shoulder for runout or shoulder squareness.
cam gear , dist gear - same # of teeth ? if not shouldn't the wear pattern be more even on all dist teeth ? orientation should switch a little each rotation .
Ok, so far here are some findings, or more of a lack of obvious problems/ wear. Still running oil slinger, looks good. Cam button is perfect, as is the button I made for setting the end play with timing cover torqued down. Cloyes Billit 9 key chain/gearset is perfect, no noticeable stretch. Fuel pump eccentric is perfect, as well as the fuel pump wear pad on arm, no noticeable wear. One small chip out of cam gear, see pic. Could have happened yesterday with dist gear broken tooth taking out the chip? I will take off intake and roller rocker shafts to free up cam pressure to check runout on cam snout tomorrow. Could be snout runout, or cam shoulder squareness? Because these are helical cut gears, if the cam shoulder was left proud by .010 or so by Erson, I wouldn't think it would be an issue, unless the centerline being off put unecessary wear on dist gear? Looks like we have to perfect these 350 roller cam conversions ourselves.