Cam gear issues

SYRacing

I picked up a 79' J20 awhile ago so I don't know much history on the vehicle. It has a 360 and the PO has had the timing cover off 2 different times and replaced the distributor and cam gear with Bulltear matched gears. Problem is that it keeps eating the cam gear. Now that I've acquired the rig I would like to know if it would be silly of me to ditch the Bulltear HEI and reinstall the duraspark distributor. I'm unsure who makes the particular HEI conversion distributor I have because I don't know any history on the vehicle. I'm only assuming its Bulltear since it has the alternator relocation bracket and he used bulltear's matched gears etc. The timing gear set is new and the cam has energizer scribed on the front with some numbers on it. I can't find a reference to crane ever making an "energizer" cam for the AMC 360. I tried googling the numbers stamped on the front and didn't find anything. Is it possible that someone used a Chrysler 360 cam? The gear showed signs of some serious alignment issues, like the distributor was engaging too far away on the cam gear. The distributor gear looks fine. Anybody else encounter these issues? PO said that the truck ran for 2hrs one time and the last 2 times the gear sheared it only lasted a couple minutes. Oil pump shaft moves freely, no binding going on there. I was going to drill and tap the cover for 1/8 NPT and T into the sending unit line to ensure things are getting oiled up in there as well. Also installing a known working front timing cover from a core 360. I was also going to measure the distance from the end of the cam to the first lobe (right by the entrance into the engine block) The cam isn't hitting that rear freeze plug, the first lobe actually goes into the engine block, looks identical to the core 360 I got another timing cover off of... I don't want to put it back together and have another gear go bald on me, what kind of tips & tricks would you guys suggest? I already know about coating the gears in assembly lube and all of the other stuff, what about running the gasket under the distributor? This would space it away from the gear a little more. PO also used felpro gasket between timing cover / engine block. Thanks in advance, I don't want to go through the same woes as the PO. I'm willing to buy any parts that will fix this!!

ironman_gq

keep the HEI it is far better than the factory ignition. replace the cam gear and check the alignment with the dizzy gear. you may be able to do this with some gear marking compound. I would replace the cam and dizzy gear as a set.

SYRacing

Yeah I was going to replace with a matched set, good idea with the gear marking compound! I've read differing opinions with the HEI vs Duraspark..I've had good luck with my DS stuff, the TFI coil is a good bang for your buck mod too The reason I'm thinking about switching it back to duraspark is because I have no idea who makes this distributor I have. I've read horror stories about the cheapie ebay HEIs and I don't want to have this timing cover off again

jeepsr4ever

We just had a customer eat a second set of gears only to find out the oiling hole in the cam is clocked in the WRONG position. If this is the case then you cannot win no matter what you use for gears or distributor. I would do some checking! :idea:

SYRacing

OK and that will be viewable from the front of the engine? If so, I'll take a picture tonight :lo1l: I'm sure that if its lacking the oil hole then cam removal is recommended, but couldn't I just externally oil it by drilling and tapping the timing cover?

jeepsr4ever

Yes it will be viewable and sometimes there can be casting flash that gets in the way of the oil flow in the large timing gear. You could try oiling it externally that is an option. Was the timing cover recently replaced?

SYRacing

No timing cover is original I believe..I took a known working one from a core AMC 360 and I'm planning on using that. Spent lunch today cleaning it and sandblasting it.. Timing chain and gears are also aftermarket. I'll snap some pictures tonight. Do you recommend putting the gasket under the HEI distributor? I'm also going to coat the living hell out of the gears when I reinstall them. Do you think you could ID a bulltear distributor over a pro form, msd, etc? I can snap a picture of that too, I have ZERO faith in any other brand but Bulltear's..I haven't read of people having this issue with them

jeepsr4ever

I could identify our distributor. The other possibility is that you didnt have the alignment pins installed.

SYRacing

Alignment pins were installed, in fact they are in the block not the cover. I'll post pictures first thing tomorrow.

SYRacing

Here are a couple pictures...

1st is the distributor.

2nd is the timing gear, notice the flash on the RH side

3rd is the top of the cam, you can see some numbers..

4th shows the energizer marking on the cam and oil hole..

Pictures didn't turn out too bad coming from a cell phone. I got home last night and discovered that my SLR batteries were dead so I decided to give it a shot with my cellie..I'm impressed.

I'm going to work over that timing gear for sure.

ironman_gq

the flash in the timing gear is most likely your problem. I would get a good set of adjustable gears from MC here and a new cam/dizzy gear set. Just to be safe I would pull the cam and check the bearings and lobes to be sure the metal from your gears didnt wipe out the bearings. probably not a bad idea to pull a main cap or two and check the mains either.

SYRacing

I cleared the big timing gear oil passage, that should be legit now. Ordered the gears and everything today, I'm going to Scotland so I won't be able to put it together anytime soon :(: Hopefully the parts will be in when I get back!! I'll use this thread to post the results, hopefully its fixed for good this time! :!:

ironman_gq

a lot of the timing sets out there are set up to run with the cam retarded which will cost you power. I would switch to a good double roller set for longevity and adjustable cam timing.

SYRacing

The PO bought a new timing set and gears...seems like I would be reinventing the wheel by getting another new set