Here's a follow up: I received the melonized gear and shaft from Hughes, it is very well done. The melonized gear itself reflects light with a black and bluish color, looks very smooth and slippery. The machined shaft is well done also, I'm happy with these parts. I measured and checked everything including the bushing in the engine. The bushing had scratches on it but measured the same as a new one, the scratches were not deep as the oil slots in the top were the same size as new. I have the old broken block engine so I decided to practice on removing the bushing from that one. After trying several different blind bushing pullers it was my experience none would even budge that bushing. It was suggested to use a tap and thread the bushing then use a bolt and slide hammer, or drop the pan and oil pump and use a drift and I think those may work. But since the existing bushing was measuring out undamaged and since it's a new engine that I don't want to get any more metal inside I elected to use the existing bushing.
Closely inspected the cam gear with a bore scope I borrowed- sure enough there were some bronze fragments on it. I used a stiff cleaning brush with grease to capture the bronze fragments so the cam gear was free of chips, etc. Installed the new gear and checked play- it was as good as new with no play. I also changed oil and filter- it originally had 20W50 Brad Penn and the short WIX filter. I switched to 10W40 and the 51515 full size Wix filter in hopes of taking some load off the gear. On a cold start it has about 70 psi oil pressure even with the 10W40 drops to around 20 after it warms up (separate mechanical gauge). Put a few miles on it today and it's running well. I will check the distributor for play the next time I go to drive it- that will tell the tale if there's wear on the new gear or not.
I'll post again after it has some miles on it and let all know how its working out.
