Timing-Gear or Chain

[71Dodger]

I am rebuilding a 1970, 413 c.i., motorhome engine to eventually put in a car to run on pump gas. It will primarily be used for cruising and shows. I plan on using less than 9.5:1 pistons, probably OEM stuff. Like most others, I am working on a limited budget. Here is my two-part question:

Can I use the stock, three-bolt cam that is 2-gear driven? I have included a photo. It is in pretty decent shape as far as I can tell. It seems that a gear drive is more sturdy and reliable.

If I can't use the gear, then when I put in a different cam, do I need to change the timing gear too? Because there are only two gears, will the valve function be affected?

Thanks for the advice.

Happy Holidays..

[road chicken]

Boy that is a new one.

[elacruze]

Never seen that drive setup, but if I could find one I'd have it in a second. The only issue would be that if you have the block blueprinted it'll change the centerline of the gears and probably make them too tight, be careful here.
Many of the major cam grinders will build reverse-rotation cams for you, so you could pick a grind which would fit your setup and have them mirror it for you.
Keep us posted.

Eric

'68 Charger R/T
540/4/4:10 Dana 60

[John Kunkel]

The gear drive in the 413 truck/industrial goes back a few years, the first one that I stumbled on was in a '62 D500. Some early poly 318 truck engines had gear drives, also. The backwards turning cam requires a special oil pump/distributor drive intermediate shaft.
It might turn out that the expense of having a special cam made will be more than the cost of an off the shelf cam, timing chain set and intermediate shaft and, with the chain, future cam changes will be cheaper.