1977 302 PCM Engine

I’d like to know whether the available 3d printing material(s) are suitable for the application... I have little doubt the gear could be reproduced reasonably accurately.

TRBenj wrote: Pretty sure that dui hasn’t had rr gears in many years. 3D printing technology there get? I’d be leaning on LSM pretty hard to find a workable solution.

Their fix is to send my current gear out to melonized. I am fine with that, after I confirm with a few metallurgists that it will work.

They still list a 302 and 351 Dizzy with a RR gear?

3d printing would be stellar. Anyone know anyone?

DUI supplies the reverse Ford dizzy so they have access to the gear documents?

Mallory is just brushing you off.

Mille1sj wrote: Even a Cast iron gear is nearly impossible to find. So after multiple calls with LSM and a few former coworkers, they recommended I have a cast iron gear melonite or nitride coated. This should allow it to work with the 8620 Roller Cam. Any thoughts on this? Anyone with a metallurgy background that would agree or disagree? If bronze is the only way, I can get a few gears made, but i’ll Pay for it.

8620 is a very good steel alloy. It can have a tough core and a hard outer surface. Core for strength and hard surface for wear.
Anyway, if you could get a length of material cut (hobbed) with the correct tooth configuration then the remaining work (lathe) is pretty simple. I would suggest at least 12 inches of gear, then numerous gears can be machined from that one piece.
Nitriding is a surface hardening that is only a couple thousands deep but very hard.
That is at least one way to go.   (I will probably get corrected here, I always do)

Sounds like consistent info.

https://www.onedirt.com/tech/engine/its-all-in-the-twist-taking-the-confusion-out-of-distributor-gear-compatibility/

Just me thinking out loud here, but it seems that LSM should have been talking about cam gear compatibility with you before deciding to make your cam.

Maybe they did and you didn't realize that there was nothing out there

it's pretty common knowledge at least here on CCF that what you need doesn't really exist as a mass produced product and they should know that too or at least ask what you have for a gear..

Can't they make a gear for you that's compatible with their cam or maybe do the coating of a cast iron RR gear that you send to them? Or tell you where to get it done to their standards.

At least that way if there are problems it's their cam and gear.

Otherwise if you have problems, you know what their answer will be with somebody else's gear being involved.

I don't have a clue what a one off gear like that or even a small number of them would cost but you're a gear guy that could probably get some help through work and if you had orders for a few from some CCFers it could bring the price per gear down..

I was hoping your answer would be different, but had that feeling that this would be the situation.

Duane in Indy may be able to be of some help here

Mille1sj wrote: Thanks Ken, I’ll call LSM on Monday. There are some notes I’ll check on the cam card as well. I don’t remember seeing it, but it may be on there.

Apparently this is a really long phone call

Mille1sj wrote: Gary, I will research the distributor gear more. I need to confirm that before I do some damage. Thanks for the heads up.

That should be real easy research Steve.

Talk to LSM Engineering and ask them if your distributor gear is compatible with the gear on the new camshaft

Stock distributor gear is cast iron

Logically, I would have thought there would have been some mention of gear compatibility somewhere along the way when the camshaft was being ordered/made/sent to you.

Gary, $247 for RR custom grind FLAT tappet from Comp Cams.   Cam only

Cost was $550, I didn’t think it was too bad Considering the costs others said to expect. The original distributor gear should work fine for it.

It's been a while sine I updated this thread. I picked up the new Reverse Rotation Roller Cam from LSM Engineering this week. I can now continue with my rebuild, get the cam in and measure push rods.

I should get some good horsepower gains from the changes.

Roller cam ground for slightly better low end torque and wider power band, I dint go too aggressive on the grind.
Upgraded to GT40P Heads
Roller Lifters
Roller Rockers
Block was line bored and honed
Block bored .030 over
Hypereutectic Pistons
Original Dual Diaphragm mechanical fuel pump rebuilt by Then and Now
New water pump
Rebuilt Sherwood Water Pump
Still looking intake manifolds

We discussed it a few times, That was partially why he wanted the original cam so that he could verify the gear direction and to scan the profiles. He said he has done reverse rotation before primarily for racing boats with dual engines that have one standard and one reverse rotation.

Mille1sj wrote: I will ask him for the specs when I hear from him next week. The tag on my engine says the firing order is 18456273.

That means you already have the 351/late 302 firing order, no need or reason to change the firing order

A good starting point would be asking what your current firing order is.

By 77 marine PCM 302's for the most part had the 351 firing order already. The low performance 165 HP version had the old 302 order and the 185 and 215 HP versions had the 351 firing order. The change in cars came later.

Since he's gonna scan it, if you were to post the specs here on CCF, it would help others and it would probably help him get business too especially if he can make a reasonably priced reverse rotation roller cam for you.

If you do have the low performance 302, you can read about a variety of reasons for the firing order swap on the internet. Some "reasons" make a lot more sense than others but Ford changed it, so why not go with the new firing order?