1968 Camaro "Badmotorfinger" v2.2

[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

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

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.

[Flash68]

Originally Posted by 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.

Doing things once is great.. if you can pull it off


So... we've been thinking on this all day... and one other thing that we changed when putting it back together was a higher volume oil pump. We put a Melling 10555 pump in place of the previous OEM replacement M-55 pump. This constitutes a 25% increase over OEM.

Could be the culprit, or at least contributory?

[Vegas69]

That certainly may have accelerated the failure. It would've died either way. Just a few miles down the road. Set it back up right and you should be good to go until you put in your LSX.

One other thing that can cause the gear failure is cam walk. Is there a cam button?

[Flash68]

Originally Posted by Vegas69

That certainly may have accelerated the failure. It would've died either way. Just a few miles down the road. Set it back up right and you should be good to go until you put in your LSX.

One other thing that can cause the gear failure is cam walk. Is there a cam button?

Ha, I was spending quite a bit of time on LS1tech for a bit there, but now since getting this motor back together and driving a bit, I really love this thing for what it is. Modern tech is great and all, but old school original is..... well, there's just something about it.

And yes there is a cam button in it.

[Vegas69]

Just making sure Rich didn't forget a piece.

It's in there, use it up first.

[GregWeld]

Dave -- couple of things.

Noticed the o'rings on the distributor.... hope your block was machined accordingly. The block should have been machined with chamfered edges on it to accept the o'ringed distributor. They are used to RAISE oil pressure...

Todd is right on about the cam -- and needing to double check with the manufacturer about what style billet cam they're putting out. As he pointed out - some are using a pressed on distributor drive gear so that running a "normal" distributor gear is possible for street engines.

There is another solution to running a bronze gear... COMP CAMS offers a synthetic carbon poly distributor gear for around $100. It's stronger than the bronze gear and if you need to run one - then this carbon poly gear will supposedly give you better life in a street roller motor. Supposedly they show NO WEAR. I say supposedly because I've never run one personally. I run the pressed on drive gear roller cams. I just don't need more BS to deal with such as inspecting my distributor gears. I have to disassemble half my air valves and my fuel system etc to get to my distributor! No thanks.

You also DO NOT want to use synthetic oil for break in of a new distributor gear -- they don't have the heavy metals used to protect engine parts like this. You need oil with the zinc etc in it.

[GregWeld]

Dave --

Forgot to say -- MOST aftermarket blocks are chamfered and then you have to use the o rings on the distributor - but if your block is not chamfered - you take the chance of cutting the rings and they end up in the oil pan... We don't need no stinking parts in our pans!! LOL

I run a Dart Little M block... so have 'run into' this issue.