[DeTomaso] My engine post-mortem

[MikeLDrew at aol.com]

Hi guys,

You may recall that my wonderful super-duper Dan Jones Special 408 stroker 
Cleveland died a gruesome death on the track back in June, when it was 
barely a month old.   The distributor gear and cam gear were both wrecked.

People had theorized that the distributor gear was at fault, but I 
discounted that theory.   You see, Crane's gear is supposed to work perfectly with 
roller cams.   Crane had gone bust a few months earlier and the supply of 
gears had dried up from conventional sources, but I learned that a Pantera 
vendor (who shall remain nameless) said he had bought up a supply of Crane gears 
before they had gone broke, and he was willing to sell one to me at the 
standard price.

I was in Germany at the time the transaction took place, but he packed it 
up and next-day shipped it directly to Dan's engine builder, who then 
installed it in the motor.   Fast-forward to June and there it was, shredded and in 
bits all over the inside of my engine.

Last week Julian Kift was good enough to burn some of his vacation time to 
drive three hours from Reno (actually 2+10, that boy speeds!) and help me 
pull the engine out of my car, and Friday Lori and I took it to Garry Choate's 
house where we took it apart, cleaned out all the debris, and Saturday, 
rebuilt it with a new Crane gear and a new cam, and a new oil pump.   Many, 
many people attributed my failure to my beloved Pete Jackson gear drive, so I 
wistfully set it aside in favor of a top-end Rollmaster timing chain set.

Well, when putting things back together, I compared my new Crane gear 
(manufactured in Feb 2011 and purchased from Summit back in July) with the old 
gear that the Pantera vendor sold me.

They were different!

There was a number stamped on the old gear, so I Googled it, and guess 
what?   It was a MALLORY gear, not a Crane gear.   And furthermore, Mallory 
states on their website that this gear, although made of steel, is NOT 
compatible with roller cams!!!!!!!!!

So, success was NEVER an option with this gear--no matter what I did or how 
I drove the car, it was going to fail.   Both Mallory and the cam 
manufacturer said so.

Now, I don't believe for an instant that the Pantera vendor deliberately 
tried to screw me over--it certainly would not have been in his interests to 
do so.   Who knows, he may have believed that he was sending me a Crane gear, 
because whoever he bought it from told him so? So while I don't hold him 
completely blameless, I'm not ready to point the finger and accuse him of 
screwing me over.   It's probably a simple, honest mistake.

But it's a mistake that cost me six months of driving (because I was too 
lazy to fix it any sooner) and about $600 in parts.

The moral of the story is, don't believe everything you hear, and just 
because a Pantera vendor tells you something about somebody else's part he's 
selling, don't automatically believe it without taking the time to verify it 
yourself.   Had I been home and not stuck in Germany for a month with a broken 
airplane, the gear might have passed through my hands, and if it wasn't in 
the original package (as this wasn't), then I probably would have Googled 
the number just to satisfy my curiosity before sending it on to the engine 
builder.

Anyway, my motor is back together now, with a new cam (same as the old 
one), a new CRANE distributor gear, the aforementioned timing chain, and a new 
oil pump (just in case metal debris damaged the old one).   We checked for 
any signs of wear or damage to the bearings, lifters, etc. and everything else 
checked out clean.   So I think I'm good to go.   My water pump was a bit 
tired so I took this opportunity to replace it, so that should get here 
tomorrow, the motor will then be fully assembled, and ready to go back into the 
car.....

Mike