So hears the deal. I am helping my son swap cams in his 350 this weekend. The block originally came out of an early 90s chevy pickup (the throttle body style). The block is machined for a roller cam but did not have a roller in it originally. A while back I did a motor swap at work in a 94 corvette with the LT-1 motor. I pulled the cam and lifters and anything else I could from the old motor to use in my kids. So I am going to use the cam, lifters, retainers, spider, push rods and all that in his block. My question is what to use for a dist. gear? I have heard that I need a "melonized" gear (sp?). I have a dist out of a 98 chevy "Vortec" motor, which has a factory roller cam, can I swap that gear on to his old HEI? NAPA lists that gear for $45 and the gear for 87-95 goes for $15. They are the same dimensions so I m guessing the "newer" more expensive gear is made from "melonized" metal?
they had some problems with the factory melonized gears up to 1998 they were not heat treated properly and it was hit or miss on the failure ( often it would fail before 50 K if it was bad) , you should use the gm melonized gear ( they are the best) but a new one . do not use the pre 95 gear as some 350's used in trucks used the non melonized gear with a flat tappet cam .and that gear will wipe out in a short time . call a chevy dealer as I found my napa charges $10 more for it and gets it from the local chevy dealer . part number is #10456413 , if you can wait a little you can buy it from rock auto too for $38
If you are holding the cam in your hands and the distributor drive gear is black iron and pinned on the billet shiny shaft then you can use good old standard gear on the distributor . If the drive gear is molded as one piece with the drive gear all shiny then it will need the special distributor gear to last . I have several of these cams and the one zz1 and factory lt1 both have pinned on black iron drive gear . the zz4 and comp's retro cam are all billet one piece . Good luck and safe building
the dizzy gear off the vortec has smaller shaft size than the hei i would get a bronzite gear for roller cam
Bronxe gears wear quickly, that is why the factory used the mellonized gear. Get the right gear and save the bronze for the race car.
So I am ***uming that the gear for a factory "vortec" roller cam should also work on the factory LT-1 vette cam. Correct?
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