Engine oils, distributor gears

["Jim Mantle" <jmantle@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Some observations on this engine oil / distributor gear thing.

I have a stock Motorcraft distributor in my race car, has been in there
9 years, the gears have lasted 9 years and they were not new to start
with. This is despite running an 80 psi spring in the oil pump. I use
25-50 Pennzoil racing oil (often diluted with methanol).

My friends race car started out life with the same combination, no
problems. He decided to put in a nice shiny new MSD distributor and
within 2 races it ate the gears. Replaced the distributor gear with a
new MSD gear and put a new stock gear on the cam and it promptly ate
them up (they were prelubed with EOS but that didn't seem to help) Asked
one of the MSD guys at the SEMA shoe about our problem and he said they
did have some issues with their gear supplier. Replaced the gears with a
pair of well used gears and the problem went away. He runs 20W-50
Pennzoil in his car.

I have rebuilt quite a few AMC engines and as long as I use "old" gears,
I have never had a problem. I suspect the gear problem relates to one
offshore supplier who probably supplies the majority of the north
American market, regardless of whose label happens to be on the package.

Jim Mantle