distributor gear oil

[selkplitt]

Finally stated my engine yesterday. Oil pressure dropped once warmed up so I know I have to dig into the gear issue. But the question I have is that my distributor gear didn't seem to get oil. I replaced my cam with a melling rv cam. I thought I checked the oil passages but I am thinking that maybe I didn't check close enough. Tomorrow I am going to prime my engine again. Shoudn't I see oil squirting on the priming tool? If I don't I guess I need to take the cover off, but what should I be looking for. As a side note my pan gasket leaked. It is a cork and I put RTV on it and I think it squished out the side a bit. So for a cork pan gasket, should I just put it in and torque it with out any rtv on it or is there something better than RTV for that.
It was nice to hear it run after 6 months though.

[Ristow]

if you can look in the fuel pump hole you get a front row seat on the gear oiling. oil should kinda form a weeping ring around the gear.


aerosol copper coat on the cork gaskets.

[selkplitt]

thanks Ristow, I will have to take off the power steering pump to get into the fuel pump. I will post back with my findings. Probably wont be till the weekend.
thanks

[JeepJeepster]

I used gasgacinch on all of my gaskets. Its like a rubber cement that quickly dries and holds everything in place. no leaks after a year.

[selkplitt]

Well I took off the fuel pump as suggested and I see the distributor gear and I see a small hole in the middle of the gear, after spinning the pump for a while, I do not see any oil. I assume it is to "weep" from the small hole in the middle to the gear as Ristow suggested. So I am going to take off the timing cover. what am I looking for to correct this. thanks for the help

[Ristow]

is the pump making any pressure at all? you can feel it in the drill.

pull the timing cover,and remove the timing set. did you put cam bearings in this engine?

[selkplitt]

yea I feel it making pressure just fine. I did not replace cam bearings. The engine was running good with good oil pressure with 91,000 miles. I did have a sticky lifter and one lobe was down which was the reason for the cam. When I had the cam out the bearings looked good. not scored at all. My oil pressure was good hot and cold before I took it apart. I put new gears in it and a new oil pump cover on it and now lose oil pressure when warm. So I am thinking about putting the old gears back in it, but of course I will plastigage them.

[selkplitt]

am I correct in that it should weep from the hole in the middle of the gear or will it weep at the rear edge of the gear. And how much oil should I see. Should it make the gear wet?

[Ristow]

there is a few holes around the gear,in between the teeth. it should be very wet. it should bleed steady from all holes. i think you either have the pump together wrong-the pressure relief is a big culprit-or the distributor gear on backwards-that happens, or a timing set missing the oil passage. take it apart and take pics.

[selkplitt]

Thanks Ristow, will head up to the garage now to take cover off.

[selkplitt]

URL=http://s1279.photobucket.com/user/selkplitt1/media/IMAG0547_zpswyctfygs.jpg.html]IMG][/URL]Is the dist drive gear installed correctly?

[Mikel]

thanks Ristow, I will have to take off the power steering pump to get into the fuel pump. I will post back with my findings. Probably wont be till the weekend.
thanks

What you can do too is to pull the distributor, cut the handle off a large flathead screwdriver and use that (and a drill) to turn the oil pump. If you look down the distributor hole with a flashlight as you do that, you should see oil dripping from the cam gear. The oil should come through the four holes in the gear. It comes from the first cam journal into the cam, makes a 90 degree turn forward, goes across the fuel pump eccentric and then into the gear itself, where it flows outwards through those four holes. The parts the oil flows through have to be properly aligned or it will not work.

Some related threads:

http://theamcforum.com/forum/another-bad-distributor-gear-story_topic73850.html

http://theamcforum.com/forum/cam-distributor-gear_topic73364.html

You seem to be using the same timing chain I had. It had six slots to spray oil to the chain. Some people think that is excessive (see link below) and have welded four of those slots, to force oil to continue flowing towards the cam gear.

http://theamcforum.com/forum/too-much-oil-pressure_topic70715_page2.html

[selkplitt]

yea, I have the priming tool and didn't see any oil. Ran it for about 15 minutes like that. Pulled the fuel pump as Ristow suggested and didn't see any oil dripping or weeping.

[Mikel]

See my edit and the last link I posted.

[Ristow]

now pull the timing set. pay close attention to how the fuel pump lobe,dist. gear are on. pull the top timing sprocket and look at the oil feed hole for the gears.