Who has (or is it mandatory) to modify the front cover to give oiling to the distributor/cam gears? A hole is drilled and tapped, then a compression fitting is installed with a short piece of copper tube bending to point at the gear mesh.
I have, on a TA Performance cover, as well as drilled a very tiny hole in the passenger side front oil gallery plug to allow oil to the timing gear/chain. It has negligible impact on pressure, is low cost, and can help prevent wear, so I am 100% for doing it.
The roller cam needs a hardened distributor gear, or a bronze gear that you must change periodically. I have no gear oiler that I know of. I have a hardened gear, and my engine has been together for 7+ years now, with plenty of 1/4 mile passes.
Im aware of the hardened cam gear, And I thought that was all that was needed. Until I found this in the TA catalog. I wish more of the items like this are spelled out in a list of 1 thru 10 or whatever of what is needed and why. such as this is a list of everything you need to change to go with a roller cam, and all the different levels, lifter girdle, different roller rockers, cam button..... and so on.
AFAIK, there is no gear oiler in my cover. I have had the distributor out once about 3 years ago, it looked great. I PM'd Jim Weise and asked him to weigh in.
I feel bad hitting him up as often as I do already. It’s almost daily lately hahaha. He is getting me squared away in what will be a great motor. Pretty close to yours Larry. But with stage 2 heads.
I have not put a distributor gear oiler in for a number of years now. Generally speaking, if your having distributor gear wear issues, then something else is going on. Some of that info in the various catalogs and other writings (even this board) is dated. These days we drill a .030 hole in the passenger side galley plug, to introduce more oil to the entire front of the engine, and this will provide plenty of oil for the distributor gear. JW
