oil pump drive gear
I am sure some guys have gotten creative and redone the stock syle drive that bolts into the lifter valley but the overwhelming majority of us are using stock ones, and overwhelming majority I would call an understatement.
Folks cause themselves untold hassles trying to reinvent wheels that work just fine, save yourself some hassle and use a stocker with maybe a safety plate added as flame mentioned above.
The fact is that many race style billet roller cams should use a bronze gear, but the "stub" shaft is a different diameter than GM distributors. GM used a 0.491" or 0.500" shaft on distributors. LT1 shafts are smaller, so a bushing could be made to use one of the larger aftermarket gears. Comp even makes a composite one that may be a nice addition.
With a stock style cam there is no real need to change it.
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A steel billet cam will require a bronze or polymer gear. These will ruin the stock oil pump drive.
Extreme performance applications, using very high spring pressures & aggressive solid roller profiles will not live on a cast core camshaft. There are also some combination cores with the steel core cam that has the cast gear mated to it. These allow the stock oil pump gear, but these cams do not work in all applications.
Now in reference to the original post.... a worn gear may often fail on a new camshaft due to the new gears meshing differently. It is always best to change the gear unless the engine is very low mileage.


