Need Some Smallblock Info.

I'm always seeing that you need to use a bronze gear on your distributor/oil pump drive when using a roller cam. This is because one of the gears will get chewed up otherwise. Is it the pump drive gear that gets chewed up or the cam gear? Why does it get damaged? Does this apply to all roller cams or just the aftermarket ones? Does the factory Magnum cam need a special gear too? I have a brand new hardened tip pump drive shaft that I bought about 25+ years ago. Mopar still uses the same part number, but is the part still the same? Will it work with a Magnum or an aftermarket roller cam? If not, what do I use, the stock Magnum part?

A couple more things & I think I'll be done. When does it become necessary to run a larger sump on the oil pan? If I have a street driven 360 that will see a max (very seldom) RPM of 6500, & usually far less, do I need to increase the oil capacity? A larger pan in my car will mean either a large loss of ground clearance or mods to the K member. Is a brand new MP pan with a windage tray good enough? Also, what is the difference in the 90* oil filter adapters. I read somewhere that the one for the 360 is different than the earlier ones. Will they interchange? I have an aluminum one. Is there a way to tell which engine it fits?

It has to do with the metal used on aftermarket roller cams. They are usually made from a steel billet vs cast iron for your typical flat tappet cam. The steel being harder than the cast, so a bronze gear is required. I am not 100% sure but I think the stock magnum cam can use a regular gear. I bought a magnum billet cam from hughes, but they had put a cast iron gear on the camshaft so a regular gear worked.

Look at a Kevco 6qt pan that should be good for a street car and will clear street and k frame just fine on a 360.

Some cars that needed the room used a cast iron 90, I have one if you need it? If not stick with a straight spin on or look into the canton racing type morpar billet stuff and the even make remote filters too. That is what I use.

340duster said:

It has to do with the metal used on aftermarket roller cams. They are usually made from a steel billet vs cast iron for your typical flat tappet cam. The steel being harder than the cast, so a bronze gear is required. I am not 100% sure but I think the stock magnum cam can use a regular gear. I bought a magnum billet cam from hughes, but they had put a cast iron gear on the camshaft so a regular gear worked.

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I guess it'll be easy to tell what the gear is made of when I get the camshaft. I always thought the gear was an integral part of the camshaft. Didn't know you could put a cast iron gear on a steel billet shaft.

djwhog said:

Look at a Kevco 6qt pan that should be good for a street car and will clear street and k frame just fine on a 360.

Some cars that needed the room used a cast iron 90, I have one if you need it? If not stick with a straight spin on or look into the canton racing type morpar billet stuff and the even make remote filters too. That is what I use.

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Thanks, I'll look into the Kevco pan. I've never heard of them.

I used to have a cast iron filter adapter on my 273. Don't know if it's still around or not. I'm still waffling as to wether to run my fenderwell headers or my 340 manifolds. That'll determine whether or not I need a filter adapter.

The Crane retrofit hyd / roller cams are a steel billet cam with a cast gear so you can use your stock type pump drive and gear. I don't know if the Comp retrofit cams are the same design. Apart from that there is a 'Sardi' [sp] billet that is tough enough for a roller applications and you can also use your stock type pump drive gear on it. This is what most of the custom grinders use for hydraulic roller grinds.

raymond said:

The Crane retrofit hyd / roller cams are a steel billet cam with a cast gear so you can use your stock type pump drive and gear. I don't know if the Comp retrofit cams are the same design. Apart from that there is a 'Sardi' [sp] billet that is tough enough for a roller applications and you can also use your stock type pump drive gear on it. This is what most of the custom grinders use for hydraulic roller grinds.

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I have been running my Comp Cams Retrofit Thumper Roller Cam with the stock distributor gear. Got a bit of a run around about it though. One person said I did, but through Summit Racing, it showed that if the part number ended with a certain number,which it does, it wouldn't be necessary. I called Comp Cams back up, the next person I talked to said to use the stock gear. We will see.

The intermediate gear;

One for standard cams

One for a roller, except retro fit rollers or so otherwise noted

The standard gear will get eat'en up *I believe*. It has to do with the metal.

With a stock pump you will be fine with the stock pan.