Team Chevelle banner

MSD pro billet distributor gear

9K views 14 replies 5 participants last post by  RATtyCamino 
#1 · (Edited)
TC'rs,

I've got a standard lunati 60103 hydraulic flat tappet and a stock HEI. I was thinking about going to MSD's pro-billet HEI. My question is will the distributor gear that comes on it work ok with my cam? MSD specs say it's a "steel gear". Is it melonized or anything?

Thanks,
Bill
 
#2 ·
If your cam was a solid roller, then this might be a tough question to answer. I say that because I had the same question about a solid roller cam that I have from Lunati, and when I called them up on two different days to inquire, I received a different answer from each of the two guys that I spoke with. One told me that my Lunati cam has an "everwear" gear pressed onto it, and that I can use the steel gear that comes installed on the MSD distributor, but the other guy told me that I'll need a bronze gear for the cam I have.

Since your cam isn't a solid roller, I would like to think that you can give Lunati a call and get a straight and definitive answer about your cam, or perhaps even a call to MSD would suffice (or both). For my application, I decided to use a bronze distributor gear, and file an oil groove in my MSD distributor housing just like the one that the Crane cam catalog use to recommend for Chevy V8 engines in order to obtain direct oiling of the distributor gear during operation ( the goove should be approximately .030" wide and .030" deep ). Perhaps even with your combo, filing a groove on the distributor housing wouldn't be a bad idea even though you don't have a solid roller cam.
 
#4 ·
Id have a hard time believing a flat tappet cam came with a billet cam gearnor sure if they use everwear gears on their cams.

They do sell an everwear gear for the dist which I am using with a billet cam gear and works great. 0 wear so far. Straub sells an AMPCO-45 bronze gear which works well if you want bronze.
 
#5 ·
Id have a hard time believing a flat tappet cam came with a billet cam .
Just for clarity, I didn't mean to imply that this^ was the case. My implication was merely that he might not get a straight answer to his question, and even if he does, the groove filed in rhe distributor seems to be a good idea anyway.
 
#7 ·
TC'rs,

I've got a standard lunati 60103 hydraulic flat tappet and a stock HEI. I was thinking about going to MSD's pro-billet HEI. My question is will the distributor gear that comes on it work ok with my cam? MSD specs say it's a "steel gear". Is it melonized or anything?

Thanks,
Bill
It will work fine on your cam. Put a little assy. lube on it when you install it. :thumbsup:
 
#11 ·
Guys, just out of curiosity; The stock stuff is iron distributor gear/Iron cam gear. How do the manufacturers make "steel gears" compatible? Heat treating or is the steel distributor gear just not that hard on the iron cam gear?

Thanks,
Bill
 
#13 ·
Guys, just out of curiosity; The stock stuff is iron distributor gear/Iron cam gear. How do the manufacturers make "steel gears" compatible? Heat treating or is the steel distributor gear just not that hard on the iron cam gear?

Thanks,
Bill
I'm not an expert in metallurgey (I'm lucky if I can even spell it correctly :D) but there are numerous grades of steel. All of which have atleast slightly varied characteristics.
 
#15 ·
Quick update guys.

I checked with MSD and the standard gear that comes on the pro-billet HEI is compatible. I bought it and dropped it in this weekend. It replaced a fairly new proform HEI.

I was having an issue with the timing jumping around at idle and the new distributor fixed it. I also took the opportunity to shorten up my mechanical advance curve and limit it with the MSD bushing.

Runs much better at idle, starts better and revs right to 6K. Home run.

thanks,
Bill
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top