Moroso 18" Pro Cam Degree Wheel

Now if you actually thought the Butcher added 18" Moroso wheels to his car, you will need to repeat after me "I promise not to be a waxer, I promise not to be a waxer, I promise not to be a waxer". This, my friends, is the big bad Moroso 18" PRO cam degree wheel. Goodness sakes alive. I got about 142 stories to tell tonight. I better get out the Jimmy Beam and diet coke. This week I have pics and stories revealing the secrets of

Cam Timing
Distributor Gears (a forum favorite)
Tremec Rebuild
Danny Bee Gear Install Shenanigans
Armando Oil Pans

There have been countless debates on which metal gear to use, and is an high volume pump ok. I'm going to avoid those topics since I have posted my opinions on them previously, and instead I want to present the case of one reason why I believe a lot of gears fail. Now my failed gears were caused by oil starvation. That is not what I am talking about tonight. Tonight we are talking about proper tooth alignment. Here is the key to it all. This is the scanned MSD addendum on distributor gear installation. You old time butcher readers may recall that the Butcher once tried to use a big hammer to install his first gear =) Making a good mess out of the MSD shaft. I sent the unit back to MSD for repair, expecting a large bill. Those awesome folks at MSD sent back a new shaft and the gear installed...no charge! How the heck is that for customer service! That was like 3 years and 3 gears ago.

They are so worried about people like the Butcher, installing gears that they encourage people to send them back for the switch, which they do free. The key to this document is the dimensions given at the bottom. 3.996" - 4.005" I happen to have my unit with its new gear and am checking these measurements out as we speak. I saw a great tip where Tom said to cover he gear in white lithium, spin it in the engine and look for a wear pattern. I tried this with some ARP moly and mainly made a good old mess. I believe I could see he wear pattern up high. Now this is easier to test when building an engine. I guess once the engine is installed, you could spin it with the starter, or drive around the block. One thing I was able to do was...sping the cam gear by hand without the distributor in. Then I added the distributor and spun the gear....crunch, bind, chew. It did not feel smooth! I have no doubt that this gear will be toast if I run it "as is". You are skeptical, like the Butcher, and you want proof...that is a good thing. Read on. It is time to measure but first...you must press the shaft in, because there is play. The measurement is to the bottom of the teeth, not the very bottom of the gear with the small ridge. Here is that ridge again. I am like 3.950" and maybe even less! I forget the exact measurement but I am short by a good amount. Now this measurement has nothing to do with anything, but into the distributor hole is 4.056". What does all this mean? What it means is that the gear will most likely be high and this will cause uneven wear patterns. I believe it will wear the bottom of the gear teeth.

Is the sky falling? No. There are a few solutions. Here is what I am going to do. You certainly could do nothing and drive around, check the gear every once in a while and see how it looks. Then if things are wearing, then try to fix, but I prefer to fix now and I do not like the binding feeling I am getting when manually spinning.

Run down to Jorge the machinist (sub your local machinists name in there) and get him to pull the gear. 90 degrees from the current pin hole, drill a new hole higher on the gear. I want to come in on the high side of 4.005. Why high? It is very hard to stretch a short shaft, and it is a lot easier to shim up a long shaft. Get Jorge to install the gear at the higher position. We are still not done. You could try and hit spec and that is ok, but I like to have more room to work and spec might be out a little. So I will make my distance long and then shim up to perfection. Next get some shims like maybe 1.575 ID and 1.80 OD. Take your distributor to the shop so the machinist can measure since I am making numbers up at this time since I can't see the pics too well =) And have those shims in 10/1000ths increments or less if possible. Now you can shim to get exactly the range said by MSD....or run the gear with lith etc and look for a perfect center wear pattern. I plan to do that and also feel for binding.

Now am making all this shimming stuff up? Is this some new wave cult? Ah No. Here are distributor shim kits for chevy...just for this very thing. You could also shim the small shaft..but I then would fear dropping that shim into the engine. One is called a shaft shim and the other a housing shim. I am a housing shim kind of guy. On some chevy distributors, you can get an adjustable height collar, and this also solves the riddle.

Now hear are some pics that will help make things clear. Here is deep inside your engine (even though it looks like a garage shelf). The distributor meets up with the camshaft gear, just like this.If the gear is to low, or too high like this, nasty things happen. When two tribes go to war, the tough guys win. Rock beats scissors and scissors beats paper and Steal beats Iron, Iron beats brass. The weaker metal will wear. And this is why it is usually a good idea to run a gear metal equal too, or lower than the camshaft gear. Camshaft gears are not brass for a reason. Now here is a pic looking down the distributor shaft hole and you can see the cam gear on the left and the hole in the bottom that the snout plugs into. In that hole is also the shaft that goes to your oil pump. So your distributor, besides sending off sparks, is also in charge of spinning that pump as well.

One of the best warning signs of distributor gear wear is erratic timing. Your timing will not hold and it will not stay set or be hard to read with a timing gun. Your car will have different idle speeds at different times. These can be signs that that gear is worn and getting sloppy and should be investigated. Those are the pics and stories on the teeth meshing of distributor gears.

Jorge and I finally solved the riddle of the Tremec bushing. The bushing comes too tight. We called Tremec and they called out 1.500" - 1.501". We cut the bearing to that and it was still way to tight. The secret is to get it to that dimension, AFTER it is pressed in. Here is the bushing in its new home, with proper 1.500" - 1.501" ID. How am I ever going to remember how to get this thing back together? I fortunately had the excellent Tremec manual in hand. I laid stuff out neatly on the desk. Man this thing looks cool and complex inside...the butcher would not be touching these things. Old gasket goo had to be removed. Do not forget those shims that were cleaned. Speaking of cleaning parts in brake cleaner...you know you are a "Butcher" when you graduate from the aerosol can to the 1 gallon =) You can see some discoloration on the tailshaft where they bushing spun and got this a little hot.

This is from Carroll Smith. When it calls for Anaerobic flange sealant, most folks might reach for loctite 515. It is red and works well. But the craft folks know to go with 518 purple. The difference is, purple gets firmer, and peels off nicer like rubber, rather than a red gooey mess. Carroll Smith said 518 was his very favorite. I use a sort of finger painting technique since I want to make sure I cover a lot of area, and I do not want lots squishing into the cavity. That housing is going to go on here. I lubed the 3 thingys at the top and also replaced the 6 O rings that went around those and seal the case. The bolts were torqued and I used a little 518 on them as well. They say to do this in several places in the manual and it works like a loctite. The sealant takes up air space and also dries rubbery so I think would dampen vibration. Now the tricky part. These three fingers get caps on the end that control he gearing. They are installed with fun roll pins that are hammered into holes. One down and two to go. Hey! That looks like a damn fine Tremec 3550.

Me and the Armando pan have had a love hate relationship. I loved it, then I tried to install it, then I hated it, then I set it back for repair, and now I almost love it again. Out of the box, it did not install and the holes were off. I made a template of my exact bolt pattern and sent it in with the pan and Armando redid the pan to exactly match that. I wish I had taken a picture of the pattern. First I installed studs, then tapped a piece of cardboard onto the studs with a rubber mallet. I then glued on oil pan gaskets to the cardboard, over the studs. I then removed the pattern and installed oil pan bolts! This was a perfect pattern of my block and made it easier for repairs. The pan got back. Corvette Ansel was over and we thought we would try and re-install it. I warned Ansel that there was a high chance of four letter word spewing since these things never go as planned. The pan would not go on. There was interference. We did a lot of Quincy medical examination and found 3-4 areas of interference.

There was a rail internal in the pan that was catching the stud girdle. I opted for the big convincing dead blow hammer and wailed on the ridge for an hour. This angled it downward. This cured clearance issue #1.

The girdle was hitting is a couple places. Proof of this was that the pan would go one when the bolts and girdle was removed. It was especially hitting the oil pump. It was hitting it a lot. Here is my girdle. Here is the Ford Racing girdle. Are you thinking what I am thinking? Damn straight. Out came the Milwaukee sawzall, and waaaa laaa. I now had 9 studs tied in, instead of 10, but things were so much easier to deal with.

I drilled a few holes a touch bigger and things were now working out. Me and the Armando pan are good to go. There is one last issue to take care of and I will use this to transition to the next story. That arc does not quite match that arc just yet and that could mean a leak.

Now here is main cap #5 on a block, and inside this lives the rear main seal. Go back a butcher issue or two and there are pics of a two piece main seal. So where the hell does this thing leak? Well I'll show you. It mainly would leak at the circles, and possibly the oil pan arc. Well damn Mr Butcher, that looks easy to fix...I can just take a caulking gun and add some more silicone. Yes, that is what you might think....but there is a catch. You can't get there. There is a massive flywheel bolted to the crankshaft, and so access to those areas is impossible. This is the no fun problem of a rear main leak. You can see a little gray in those pics...that is silicone...all books and gaskets say to put a little to help prevent the leak.

Now there is some hope. 90% of the time you probably can get to the rear main, or the oil pan arc. To get to the arc, just drop that pan, goo it up with silicone, and reinstall. You can also get o maincap #5. You could remove the 2 or 4 main studs or bolts, drop the cap, clean it, re goo it, and reinstall it. This is far less labor than pulling the motor. What's the catch? The catch is, if you have a regular build, this will work, if you used the notorious stud girdle, then it will not work since you will have to unbolt ALL your main caps, to get the girdle off, and then the crank is going to fall on your head and a pile of other things. I plan to really silicone up the oil pan and even re add some additional silicone to any suspect areas before I add that flywheel. Really the leak is just annoying. It is just oil escaping the engine and will not hurt anything but could fly onto the clutch and things if it is a fast enough leak. A slow leak probably could be ignored, but check with your mechanic or advisors since I am the Butcher and take my suggestions with a bag of salt =).

I am getting further with the timing belt system. I next had to install the lower gear which was an interference fit. This means that the gear is smaller than the snout of the crank shaft and you get it on with an installing tool like a damper. I read that the interference should be in the range of .002 - .008. I decided not to check this and try to install the gear. I got it on about an inch and thought "man, this is really tight". I kept turning and ratchetting the gear down more and more. I was using washers and spacers and a damper install tool. Pretty soon I would estimate that I was leaning on the torque wrench at the 180lb level. I am sure several of you are saying "this is a sign to stop". Yes, for some, but for the butcher, I was so close. Soon I was worried that I was about to collapse the engine stand. I decided the gear had won. I would simply use the damper removal tool and pull it off. Ohh ohhh. the tool was the wrong size!!! It fits a damper, not a gear. Let me tell you, that gear was so stuck on there, I was sure I was going to have to take the engine apart and remove the crank and take it to Jorge. I went to bed. The next day I awoke refreshed.

I decided to try and get Jorge the machinist to build me a Danny Bee Lower Gear Removal tool. And there it is. My theory was to put a bolt through the center, then lock two nuts together, and then spin the gear off. The plate in the center is held by three studs into the gear. This sort of worked. It took 3 hours to get that gear off. Several issues complicated the deal. The locking of two bolts was no match for the spinning bolt. It also took a lot of voodoo spacer techniques to make it all work. In the end, I was surprised to find that I was successful in removing that gear. I took the gear to Jorge who removed material to get to the .002 range. I took the gear home and tried to install. This was way tighter than a damper, I thought. I kept going and got it on. The next day I re-read the instructions. Ah ha! I had misread them! The interference was supposed to me .0002" = .0008" ...no freaking wonder I could not get that gear on. Live and Learn. Jorge also made me a groovy install tool. Here is the tool, the gear, and the damper. And some additional water pump and pulley spacers were made. Studs. Some early test fitting. Spacers keep the pump off the gear. Bottom view..tighter access than I would like.

The best way to install rod bolts is with a stretch gauge. I did not want to buy one and so I used the secondary solution. In retrospect, I wish I had measured pre and post length. I did do a test of one bolt. ARP says that you should stretch this bolt .0052 - .0056. If you can't do that, loosen and tighten it 3 times to 59. I did some tests and I think 63ft lbs seemed better on my TQ wrench to make this range. It is wild see a bolt stretch like that.

There must be 68 ways to degree a camshaft. Here are 4 tutorials and they are all a little different.

Crane
Lunati
Isky
Comp1 2

Personally I like the Crane and Lunati methods. Why degree a cam? You degree a cam since it might be out of phase. Crane gives these reasons

1. Cam or crank gears are incorrectly marked.
2. Keyways are out of position on gears.
3. Keyway in the crankshaft is misindexed.
4. Cam dowel pin or keyway is misindexed.

What this basically means is that you might think your cam is at 12 o'clock and straight, but it might be at 1 o'clock or 11 and advanced or retarded without you knowing. Why are there so many ways to degree a cam? There are so many ways since there are 2-3 ways to do each step and about 4 steps. Here is an example

1. Heads on the Engine or Heads off to start. Some will argue that with them off, you could be 1-2 degrees retarded at the end

2. Next find TDC
Finger feeling air in spark plug hole method
Rod down spark hoe method
Piston stop in spark plug hole method
Positive stop on piston heads off method
Dial gauge to highest point method
Dial gauge to two point method

Some would argue that the finger feeling air method might be least accurate where positive piston stop is more accurate.

3. Intake Centerline method or .050 method
Some argue the intake centerline method is old and does not work well with modern asymmetrical cams.

4. Dial gauge on lifter or on push rod?

right there you have something like 2 x 6 x 2 x 2 = 48 methods! It is not as hard as I am making it sounds. If you want a simple a good tutorial, check out the Lunati one. If you want one with a little more meat, try the Crane one. I am doing my own Butcher variation. Now this story will not finish since I am just getting into the timing, but I will give my first two steps. I am going to cam degree once with the heads off, and once with them on...only because I want to compare and I personally feel the numbers will be no more than 1 degree different with valve train load. Time will tell. So here is a heads off start.

First Find Top Dead Center. You bolt you monster wheel onto the crank and you add some sort of marker wire as I have hear. I then took the dial gauge and put it on piston #1 and I rotated the crank until the gauge stopped moving. Now this is not perfectly accurate, but I knew it would be within a degree. The needle does not move for a degree or two so you want it in the middle of the lull. Getting close. You then move the wheel and lock this down as 0 degrees.

Now I wanted to check this two ways. I then picked an arbitrary number. This time I cranked the wheel maybe 45 degrees clockwise and watched the gauge again. I forget exactly, but you want to hit say 50 on the gauge, on both the clockwise and counterclockwise side of the wheel. On one side I hit here at 55 and made a mark, and on the other I hit.here at 54.5 The difference of those two would be TDC...this shows my earlier method was only out by 0.25 ...woo hooo!

Now I wanted to do the test again. I had no piston stop which in books is usually a thing you bolt over the piston. The piston comes up and hits this stop. You can see how the stop is very similar to the gauge method tend to think the gauge is more accurate than the stop. I invented a stop of a magnetic base and ratchet. The piston hit that clockwise and stopped and I put a mark on the wheel...back the other way...whack...mark the wheel, split the difference...guess what....my damn first method again, very similar...all three were within 0.25 degrees. Now if the heads were on the engine, you can stop a piston through the spark hole, with a part you can get at Jegs, or you could make one out of an old spark plug and bolt.

So now your wheel is adjusted really accurately to TDC. Here is where we stop for today. If I was using the simple Lunati method, I would then place the dial gauge on the intake lifter of #1. This is simple to do with a flat tappet, yet impossible with a roller. Instead, I rigged the pushrod to the gauge. You would do the same thing with the heads on. The key is having everything very straight or in alignment Now here is where things are confusing in the Lunati. They say to rotate the engine clockwise until .050 is seen on the gauge, but in their tutorial, the pic is of a wheel that has gone counter clockwise? What's up with that. I think you would rotate almost 30 degrees. You know take a reading and this number is your BTDC or before top dead center and the Lunati cam card, which is really nice, shows that this is when the intake valve opens. If, for example, your card says 8, and this number on your Moroso Pro Wheel says 10, you my friend have a 2 degree advance, and can now adjust your cam back 2 degrees to get it to spec.

Now I did try this once and I was way off. I started with my initial timing gears setups dots off, for no good reason. I wish I had a better picture. On any cam gear set, there are two dots. Normally you line the bottom dot to 12 and the top gear dot to 6 o'clock. That is the most common way to set cam timing without doing any of this song and dance, but you can see how you could be out 2-6 degrees trusting that method.