This may be a stupid question, :rolleyes: so don't give me too hard of time, but with a billet roller cam (that has a billet dist. gear) can the gear be cut or ground off and a normal cast (iron ???) gear installed in its place?

Thanks in advance. smile.gif

Darren,
This procedure would probably be very expensive. You would be much better off to get a distributor gear that is compatable with the steel cam.

I have a Lunati roller cam that I thought (in the future) I might have reground and while they had it if it was possible to remove the billet gear and install a cast gear so I would not have to run a bronze gear on the dist.

So, is no one using the "poly" gear? COMP says it works with any type of cam gear and does not wear or pollute your oil. Guess I answered my own question. http://www.jegs.com/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/ProductDisplay?prrfnbr=207964&prmenbr=361
Must be for the NASCAR guys only (external oil pump) But then, http://www.compcams.com/Technical/Catalogs/NP2003/Page-11.pdf
says "race and street" with no mention of external oil pump.

Wouldn't the rear bearing have to be cut off the cam to press on the cast gear? This would seem to make it a difficult job.

To answer this question more specifically...

Yes it can be done,
no it is not that hard or expensive.

Several methods to do it but the most common is to cut the rear journal and cam gear section of the cam completely off, leave a protruding section, cut the rear off a stock cast cam core, bore it, press on the stub of te billet core, pin it and go.

Also the billet cam gear and rear journal can be turned down, and a new gear and rear journal sleeve pressed on.

There are two cam core supply companies that provide cores already made in this manner.
Cam Machine is one, I forget the other.

Anyway,
I ordered a Comp cam with the core made this way and due to excessive oil pressure it ate the dist gear up and slightly marred the cam gear so I sent it off to be redone.
Comp said it would be expensive for them do it...

Delta Camshaft in Tacoma WA does this mod. www.deltacam.com (http://www.deltacam.com)

They quoted me $75 to do mine but they have to cut off the already installed rear of the cam so call and check for your application.

Bronze gears are a PITA and shed into the motor, the money spent on having this mod done is well worth it to use any stock type dist. gear.

Im having this done right now, a 2 pc. core it's called. It's done as Jakeshoe described...cut off end of the core, and attach the the cast end w/ gear. Then the rest of the cam is ground from there. Howard's cams is doing mine. Im doing a solid roller, and I wanted a little different duration and lift than their off the shelf offerings. It was fifty bucks extra in my case. They told me the same thing about the bronze gear, that they dont last very long in a street application.

What material is used for the GM roller cams? The melonited GM distributor gear obviously has good durability with those cams.

Originally posted by Schurkey:
What material is used for the GM roller cams? The melonited GM distributor gear obviously has good durability with those cams. =
Don't know for sure what the GM cores are but the Melonized gear is not compatible with the aftermarket billet cams.
I was told it was by a very "reputable" & well known cam company but trust me it ain't graemlins/angry.gif

Supposed to work fine with their Hyd rollers & cast solid street rollers but I don't use solid cast rollers in anything I do.

Thanks guys, I may check into the two piece cam and I also may check into the poly gear also.


Johnny,

Looks like you decided on a roller. What specs did you decide on?