If you look at Comp Cams website, it shows the hydraulic roller cams as needing a bronze distributor drive gear. For the solid roller cam, the website says,
"Xtreme Energy™ Mechanical Street Roller Camshafts, No upgraded distributor gear necessary."
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1970 Fastback (to be finished outside as a Boss 302 clone)
393 Windsor AFR 205 heads with 11:1 compression
Tremec TKO 5 Speed
Link to my Hub Garage and blog about my car http://www.hubgarage.com/mygarage/maxum96 My car as of December 2009
There's a link to my cam. Unfortunately I haven't even seen it; the cam was shipped directly to the engine builder and installed, and I don't have the engine yet because I'm still waiting on my Weber setup so it can be dyno-tuned before I take delivery. Comp-Cams doesn't show the cam on their main site, but they actually own Inglese and make the cam. If it's supposed to look shiny even between the lobes, I suppose this isn't a billet camshaft.
Now I'm wondering why they told me I can't use the stock MSD iron gear, and should use the steel gear instead of the bronze...seems to go against both criteria. Maybe there's something different about the cam I bought? Guess I'll call to find out. I just hope I wasn't misinformed, as it cost over $150 in shipping/parts/labor just to have the steel gear installed on my dizzy.
If you have the austempered ductile iron cam, you can run a steel gear, so you'll be ok. I have a billet steel, which I got because I am running around 390 lbs. of seat pressure over the nose, and they said the billet steel is more durable than austempered ductile iron. But, I didn't realize I would have to be limited to a sacrificial gear for the distributor.
If you look at Comp Cams website, it shows the hydraulic roller cams as needing a bronze distributor drive gear. For the solid roller cam, the website says,
"Xtreme Energy™ Mechanical Street Roller Camshafts, No upgraded distributor gear necessary."
Maxum, I don't care what crane says, you best check that thing after the first 6,000 miles, then at least once a year after that and make sure it's not wearing through. Roller cams are made of hardened steel so they need a hardened dizy gear.
I think you're a little confused. I never said anything about Crane . I have a Comp Cam. From Comp Cams website. This is my cam,
Sorry Maxum, I meant to say Comp Cam's (However Crane also applies).
I built my 347 Stroker with a Comp Cam's 281 HR Extreme Energy cam and was told I could run the standard cast gear, which I did, only to wear it to a razors edge within 8,000 miles. So I switched to a bronze gear and wore that one out in 3,000 miles. After that I wised up and switched to hardened steel gear and all is good.
No worries. Thanks for the info. I'll watch mine. I'm going to put a magnet in my oil pan.
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1970 Fastback (to be finished outside as a Boss 302 clone)
393 Windsor AFR 205 heads with 11:1 compression
Tremec TKO 5 Speed
Link to my Hub Garage and blog about my car http://www.hubgarage.com/mygarage/maxum96 My car as of December 2009
FWIW, Keith Craft uses the Ford Racing billet steel distributor gear with CompCams billet rollers. Has over 100 engines out there with this combo. Here's Keith's website: http://www.keithcraft.com/
So I've got a Crane Cam 449561 (PowerMax series) and I'm trying to find out if I can use a steel gear or if I have to run bronze/polymer/composite gears.
I've been running a bronze gear, and its almost at the end of its life. Crane is defunct and not answering calls anymore, does anyone know about these Cams?
That part number refers to a retrofit hyd roller for the 302. The main difference for the retrofit vs a stock replacement roller is the base circle diameter on the cam lobes, but they are usually still ground on a steel billet cam core same as the oem rollers so you should be fine using an oem style steel cam gear. Bronze would work, but they are intended to be a sacrificial part with the bronze wearing down in just a few thousand miles at most. The bronze can wear out much faster depending on the individual combo so they aren't usually meant for a street engine.
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Last edited by Mtrain; 10-31-2009 at 02:40 PM.
Reason: add
The -8 on the end of the cam number means an Austempered Iron core, not a steel billet.
FWIW I run a -8 core cam in my 351C with a steel Crane gear and everything is great.
Re-reading this thread after this long, I chuckled at all the hype over "billet steel". It didn't occur to me at the time, but there's really no such thing as "billet steel".
It's "a billet of steel" and "billet" is machinist-speak for "a gigantic hunk of...". Granted the type of steel used in "billet cams" *could* be different than the plain old "steel" cams used in 5.0s and such, but I get the feeling that a lot of this is just hype.
Ok, I think I picked that nit...
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Cobra 5.0L & AOD swap, here we come.
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Granted the type of steel used in "billet cams" *could* be different than the plain old "steel" cams used in 5.0s and such, but I get the feeling that a lot of this is just hype.
