More dist gear issues

[oldcarnut]

Not sure if I replaced it but I did check it and everything seemed ok. This has been going on since last fall so I've forgotten some things. It was pointing the right way and moved freely in the bore. I went through the 12 steps for distributor and cam gear wear and think they are all covered. I used an AC Delco PF24 filter. Any issues with these? Going to go to a Wix next try. When I took the filter apart everything seemed ok. I also don't have the filter bypass blocked off. I checked a main bearing and there was a slight amount of debris. Hope I don't have to do all that over again. I am using an aftermarket timing gear which has 6 slots to sling oil to the chain area. Someone wrote on another forum that they always braze 5 of those slots closed so less oil goes there and more to the cam and dist gears. Have you ever heard of having to do that? Apparently the factory gears had no slots. I also ran warm oil through the oil sending unit hole while turning the engine with the oil pan off. Oil streamed from the normal places and in normal quantities except from the front which seemed to stream quite a bit. Couldn't tell if it was from the front cam bearing or from the timing sprocket slots. Any way to tell if the front cam bearing is ok without taking everything apart again? Thanks tufcj for your input.

[tufcj]

What brand of timing set are you using? I've never had to braze slots shut. I have had to clearance the oil supply slot, some have casting flash blocking them. One thing I could suggest is to remove the fuel pump and spin the oil pump with a priming tool. Watch the cam gear thru the fuel pump hole and see if you're getting a good oil flow thru the cam gear. If you look closely it has small oil holes in it. They should flow a good supply of oil. Another thought is that if the left lifter galley plug (looking at the engine from the front, it's behind the upper cam gear) is threaded in too far, it can block oil flow to the front cam bearing, which oils the cam gear.

Bob
tufcj