1989 Ford 351W

[rover18]

Ford 351W Distributor Gear Chewed up

2 summers ago I rebuilt a 1989 Ford 351W in my parents' boat. We had issues going through dizzy gears. First, the shop that did the work mounted the iron gear too low and it was compressed in the block. We put a new iron gear on and it was wearing funny. So I pulled the cam and Delta Cam had a new cam ground me the next day. Great guys by the way. So we put the new cam in with a bronze gear on the dizzy. We went the first summer and then almost to the end of last summer with the bronze. Guys at the shop I took the dizzy to said that the gear is supposed to rest on the block but still have a few thousandths play up, and essentially down. Is this true??? As I recall, there was a couple of thousandths space under the gear when I installed it. We put another gear on when the first one went and it works fine now, but it is rather annoying to be on the water and have the gear go. The guys at the shop suggested a composite gear too at the time. Anybody mess with these at all. No hurry by any means, it'd be a little cold right now.

All help and suggestions are much appreciated!

 

[rover18]

Anybody have any thoughts??????:booo:

 

[Totalled]

Roller cam or flat tappet?

 

[rover18]

flat tappet

 

[Totalled]

Shouldn't need to run anything but an iron gear. Have you tried a different dist?

 

[rover18]

Well I put a little bit of a bigger cam in it, not too much, just enough to get a little bit more of a throatier sound. The first two gears we tried were iron. Then Delta warrantied the cam and we put in a bronze gear.

 

[Totalled]

Did you put the camshaft thrust plate back in?

 

[rover18]

Yes. I put about 100 hours on the boat with a bronze gear before having to replace it again. But bronze gears are expensive and I don't want to have to keep putting new ones on every 100 hours.