1968 Camaro "Badmotorfinger" v2.2

[Vegas69]

Must not like the new name..... ha ha Your old pal, old buddy Todd has a few thoughts.

1. Your gear mesh doesn't look right. The distributor looks like it needs to be deeper. They make slip collar distributors just for this problem.

2. When the engine is cold, you need to take it easy. Your oil pressure is high and that is when a majority of the stress takes it's toll on the gear. How much oil pressure do you have when you first start driving and row through the gears?

3. A bronze gear is the wrong direction unless you want to swap it every year. A bronze gear is only to be used on a billet gear. Do you have the cam card so you can reference the manufacturer and cam gear type? I'd go with a melonized gear.

4. If you decide to ignore my advice on the gear. I'd block your oil filter bypasss. In fact, I'd block it either way. Remember what took out the bearings on my first engine? A bronze distributor gear that wore and sheered. When the engine is cold, GM designed the oil system to bypass the oil filter some. That takes any debris and sends it directly through your cam, rod, and main bearings. No good. If your engine doesn't have a blocked bypass now, you need to keep a close eye on the engine for a while. Inspect the oil filters and I'd change the oil a couple times. Don't drive it anymore unitl this is done. What a blocked bypass does is make ALL the oil be filtered ALL the time. You should switch to a K&N filter or Moroso high flo and keep the engine under 3k until the oil get some temp in it. How do you know? The oil pressure starts to drop. If it's normally 75 at 2500 cold then wait until it's 60 to start driving normally.

These high performance motors need alot of maintenence. You should be checking the timing on a regular basis. If you start to lose timing, you will know the gear is wearing again.

[waynieZ]

I'm using a Filter Mag on my engine from the first start up. When I bought it I cut t he filter open and found nothing in there but I blocked the bypass and figure its cheap insurance.

[Flash68]

Originally Posted by Vegas69

Must not like the new name..... ha ha Your old pal, old buddy Todd has a few thoughts.

I think you're right! and I was hoping you'd chime in.

Originally Posted by Vegas69

1. Your gear mesh doesn't look right. The distributor looks like it needs to be deeper. They make slip collar distributors just for this problem.

That's exactly what Rich's neighbor/friend was telling us. He said use an adjustable slip collar, or even machine the existing collar down to fit.

Originally Posted by Vegas69

2. When the engine is cold, you need to take it easy. Your oil pressure is high and that is when a majority of the stress takes it's toll on the gear. How much oil pressure do you have when you first start driving and row through the gears?

Oil pressure is betw 60-70ish I believe on start up then settles down a bit.

Originally Posted by Vegas69

3. A bronze gear is the wrong direction unless you want to swap it every year. A bronze gear is only to be used on a billet gear. Do you have the cam card so you can reference the manufacturer and cam gear type? I'd go with a melonized gear.

I do have the cam card and it's a Stahl billet cam, which is why we threw the bronze in there.

Originally Posted by Vegas69

4. If you decide to ignore my advice on the gear. I'd block your oil filter bypasss. In fact, I'd block it either way. Remember what took out the bearings on my first engine? A bronze distributor gear that wore and sheered. When the engine is cold, GM designed the oil system to bypass the oil filter some. That takes any debris and sends it directly through your cam, rod, and main bearings. No good. If your engine doesn't have a blocked bypass now, you need to keep a close eye on the engine for a while. Inspect the oil filters and I'd change the oil a couple times. Don't drive it anymore unitl this is done. What a blocked bypass does is make ALL the oil be filtered ALL the time. You should switch to a K&N filter or Moroso high flo and keep the engine under 3k until the oil get some temp in it. How do you know? The oil pressure starts to drop. If it's normally 75 at 2500 cold then wait until it's 60 to start driving normally.

These high performance motors need alot of maintenence. You should be checking the timing on a regular basis. If you start to lose timing, you will know the gear is wearing again.

I'm not sure what our current status is on the bypass. I'll talk to Rich about this before it gets driven again. This has me a bit worried.

[Vegas69]

GM runs melonized on billet core. A billet cam can have a press on cast iron gear. You may want to call the cam manufacturer. I did some serious research when my gear sheered and found the melonized to be the safest solution in most situations. It has longer service life than a bronze gear but should sheer BEFORE the cam gear. Factory cars ran a cast iron cam and distributor gear.

If you decide to stick with bronze, checking timing is important and so is the blocked bypass. One instant indicator of timing loss is a lower idle speed hot.

[fleetus macmullitz]

This issue is probably not due to the name change ...

[Vegas69]

One more thing while I'm thinking about it. A solid roller requires high spring pressures to operate properly. The cam is dependent on windage slinging oil up on the camshaft lobes for lubrication. Your idle speed should be at 1000 rpm or higher for proper lube. When the car is started cold, I'm sure it doesn't like to idle. You should keep the rpm up to lube the camshaft right away.

[Flash68]

Originally Posted by Vegas69

One more thing while I'm thinking about it. A solid roller requires high spring pressures to operate properly. The cam is dependent on windage slinging oil up on the camshaft lobes for lubrication. Your idle speed should be at 1000 rpm or higher for proper lube. When the car is started cold, I'm sure it doesn't like to idle. You should keep the rpm up to lube the camshaft right away.

Yep idle has always been higher than 1000 -- currently about 1200. And it actually isn't too bad on startup. I hold it in the teens for a bit but it seems to "settle" easier/quicker than I would have thought.

[Flash68]

Originally Posted by Vegas69

GM runs melonized on billet core. A billet cam can have a press on cast iron gear. You may want to call the cam manufacturer. I did some serious research when my gear sheered and found the melonized to be the safest solution in most situations. It has longer service life than a bronze gear but should sheer BEFORE the cam gear. Factory cars ran a cast iron cam and distributor gear.

If you decide to stick with bronze, checking timing is important and so is the blocked bypass. One instant indicator of timing loss is a lower idle speed hot.

Yeah a call to Stahl is in order for tmrw for sure. I forgot about the nature of your first engine issue.

I think I (or maybe Rich) will call you about this. Thanks Todd.

Originally Posted by compos mentis

This issue is probably not due to the name change ...

Grunge died for a reason perhaps.

[Flash68]

Originally Posted by Vegas69

1. Your gear mesh doesn't look right. The distributor looks like it needs to be deeper. They make slip collar distributors just for this problem.

We are using a pretty thick gasket on the dist currently... what do you think about swapping out for a real thin gasket?

[Vegas69]

Not sure it will be enough. There is a special tool for measuring the proper depth. I like to do things once if possible. A local machine shop better have one.