Hemi solid roller camshaft with iron gear

Any suggestions on who can sell me a solid roller cam for a gen 2 hemi with an iron gear pressed onto the end of the billet core? This is a fairly common option for big block chevy, but apparently not for a hemi?

Thanks
Craig

Are you wanting a steel solid roller cam with a iron oil pump drive on it?
If so probably not available, not that I know of, yet for us Mopar BB racers
I buy and use the Milidon brand bronze oil pump drives for my solid roller cam motors, they offer three different lengths depending on the oil pump used

There are only 2 or 3 companies making cam cores.

You may try Cam Motion and see if they have the cores. If not, they may be able to tell you if they are even made.

I mean, not to be rude but how many hemi guys need what you are asking for? I've been asking for 7-4 swap cam cores for both SBM and BBM since I can't remember when and when I get tired of the laughing on the other end of the phone I just hang up. I haven't asked for that since about 2014 so they may be available now.

How do you prevent distributor gear wear on a steel billet solid roller camshaft?

On my 14-71 blown big block chevy the MSD "brass" distributor gear wore out in about a thousand miles running on a fairly mild howards solid roller cam. Next I tried the "melonized" gear, it also started wearing after about 1k miles, next I tried the "plastic" one that comp cams claimed would work, but it only lasted about 1500 miles before 1/2 of each tooth was worn off and had significant spark scatter. I then installed a Crower billet roller cam with a cast iron gear pressed on and after 10K miles the stock GM distributor gear looked basically like new.

I understand the problem you are having. The issue is getting a core. That's going to be a problem.

Like I said...you can call Cam Motion and see what they have, or if they can tell you has that core, or if one is even made.

There is also Barton, and Tim Banning at FHO who may be able to help.

I totally get what you want. The getting part is going to be an issue.

Use Crane 66970 for your pump drive gear on a roller cam. I have well over 5,000 miles of street/strip use on one with zero wear.

Take look at the size of the Chevy gear and then look at the Mopar gear size
Another outstanding engineering job by Mopar engine designers
I ran the same Milidon bronze gear on my old pump gas Duster that had hundreds of runs and over 3000 street miles on it with no ignition timing movement at all
IHTHs

I don’t know if Crane Cams has an iron gear option on the big block HEMI cams, but they do for the small block cams.

It's a good idea to try and polish up the drive gear on the solid roller cams before you use then, If they are poorly machined they will wear out the intermediate shaft gear quickly.

I prefer the bronze gear to be the part that wears! When it gets too loose a new one can be dropped in without disturbing the cam.

Never really had a problem w/ mine after 10+ years and a bunch of street time. Replaced it when I freshened it up about 5 years ago. Sure lasts a lot longer than 1k miles.

Last time I checked (not w/in the last few years), NOBODY offered a cast-iron gear option for a billet BBM / Gen II Hemi cam.

I'm also surprised at the wide range of lifespans people running the traditional bronze gear experience. Dwayne posted pics on SpeedTalk that showed some pretty severe wear that he thinks could be the result of the teeth on the cam gears not being beveled today as well as they used to be. At least, I believe that's his hypothesis.

One of the things to inspect while I'm addressing the oil leaks that turned up on the dyno is the distributor drive gear wear. I've got either an MP or a Milodon bronze gear & shaft assembly and a collar restricting the vertical play between the distributor shaft and the oil pump drive. Depending upon how that looks, I may pull the cam and try to bevel its teeth slightly.

From some of the comments others posted about trying the melonized steel or poly(?) gears, my thought is if the cam gear / oil pump drive gear interface is "iffy" for whatever reason, it's not going to matter what type of material the drive gear is.

FWIW I just saw an advertisement is a comic book where Hughes says he has a gear like the OP is wanting.

It may be worth the OP looking into that gear.

I changed my worn bronze gear out to the Hughes Hug 6213 $169.
It's the crane gear 66970 with shaft installed. I installed it on a used cam with a M63hv pump that had a high pressure spring in it. Everything they tell you not to do. Lol I pulled it out after 1 year to check it and it and the cam looked perfect.

I did have to emery cloth the shaft to get it to spin freely in my bushing.

I also put a collar on my MSD.

Here's a thought on why some wear worse than others. When I was using a Mopar distributor and I ran the valves the bronze gear looked great. Then after I changed to the MSD the gear was worn when I checked it. I didn't have a collar on either of them. So I wonder if the shaft on the Mopar was maybe a little longer and kept the gear from climbing up? Of course I didn't think of this until months after everything was done. Lol Mike

I am running the Hughes shaft & gear in mine, at 2000 miles I checked it & it was not worn, I also do run the collar on the dist, HV oil pump & adjustable valve, 10/30 oil 65psi max hot,idle 25psi

Hughes offers the Crane melonized oil pump drive gear mounted on a new shaft, not a camshaft option for a cast iron cam gear.

I get that, but isn't that gear supposed to be good for any cam gear?

Yep, basically everything they say NOT to do...

It seems to me someone with a lathe and the right combination of skill and courage could probably create one, similar to how Crane made the 2-piece small block cores that were used in MP crate engines.

I think it might be a problem to get a person who is inve$ting all that is required in a Hemi to accept the 2 piece design held together with a roll pin, though.

It could be done.
I don't think I would want it in that caliber of an engine, though.

Yes, yet at least one person above mentioned that even that type of gear wore excessively in their application. That goes back to my comment that I don't think any gear will hold up if there's something jacked up with the cam gear / oil pump drive gear interface.

IMO one of the fundamental issues with the two piece cam in this application is the pressed on piece is in front of all the twisting load.

Potentially you could be trying to rotate the cam against 16 springs that have 400lbs closed/1200lbs open load(times the rocker ratio)...... along with some bending forces perpendicular to the centerline, and throw some oscillating/harmonics in the mix as well.

What’s going to insure the indexing between to two pieces doesn’t drift?

Good point, the odds of success in a two piece design are much better when the cam drive and the distributor drive gear are at opposite ends rather than both in front.