I put one in about a year and a half ago but the motor was down for a good part of that. I'm replacing the head gaskets now and thought I'd go ahead and pull the gear to inspect it. Yikes! I'm glad I did. A Ginsu Knife should be so sharp as these teeth. I'm thinking I was about 1 month or so from a total oil pump failure. I've got a new one on the way and it should be here tomorrow. I'm just wondering if this is considered a 'consumable' item that needs to be replaced every year or at some other safe interval. My cam is a custom Bret Bauer and has the billet gear on it.
Thanks!

 

How long is typical?

I think you answered your own question.


A regular gear is out of the question?

 

Well... I dunno. I've always read if you opt for a solid roller (billet core implied, right?) that you should switch to a bronze gear. Bob put a billet gear on this billet cam so I opted for that. But... if the objective is to have a gear that doesn't wear out prematurely, it doesn't sound like the bronze gear is that much better. Maybe the idea is to have bronze splinters running around the oil system instead of ferrous metal splinters? Lol...

 

would you rather destroy a $50 gear or a $400 camshaft?

If you get a year out of it your good.....

I have seen some people get 8 years out of one..some get 150 passes out of one....either way you need to get it out and check it once in a while.

 

Lol..Last time (stock gear on Custom Cam Motions 244 dur/.594 lift hyd roller), it took out the entire motor. The gear stripped completely and w/out any oil pressure, there went the bearings. I'm all for the gear instead of the diamond encrusted parts elsewhere I just wanted to establish how frequently (if there's ever been a concensus) I will need to pull the intake off to look at it.
Thanks guys!

 

Are you running an HV oil pump, too? That puts more wear on the gear. Just from threads I have read, it does not seem people get too much long term use of the bronze gear.

 

The right gear for a billet cam and stock drive to survive together is readily available.

 

Is the stock factory drive gear bronze?
This has me wondering now what I have in mine..the LPE211/219 cam they sent me was a billet cam, but it did have a different type of gear pressed on the cam, is was not cast/made as part of the cam like the previous non-billet cam was.... and I just reused the factor oil pump drive/gear as it was fine at the time.

It's been about 10k miles now. My Oil analysis report shows a higher than average amount of iron and silicin, but it had higher levels of both before the cam swap too...no mention of bronze in the oil.

 

Crane Cams offers steel gears that are supposed to work with a billet cam and last. You might see if they offer one that works with the LT1

 

Yes, it is.

 

What is it?

 

Thanks. I'll have a look for that.

 

No, the factory gear is the same as the factory cam methinks, so they would have compatible wear characteristics.

 

[HV pump]

An HV pump is hard on a normal gear. I'd say you would have an increased chance at more gear life with a SV pump.

 

As was posted earlier - we use a steel gear with the billet cams.