[Cliff R]

Adding .030" holes to spray the distributor gear and timing set is a good idea, IMHO. They stock Melling oil pump delivers over twice the oil the engine will ever need so why not use it to provide positive lubrication to those components.

I also believe, and I'm just throwing this out there that it would be a really good part to add to one of these engines if someone offered a cam chain tensioning device. All of these timing chains stretch out, especially the roller variety and once they start "flopping" around I believe that wear and stretch are greatly accellerated at that point. I say this because when I lost the Rollmaster chain in my first 455 is was fine shortly before the night it failed. In the previous months I had moved the cam 4 times to do some ICL testing and the chain didn't have all that much slop in it, maybe around 1/4 to 5/16". I made a mental note of it, but it wasn't enough slop to be alarming. Looking back on it I think it was on it's was out and had enough slop in it that it was flopping really bad on the coast side accellerating the wear process.

That's all water under the bridge at this point because I went back to a stock type 3/4" wide set with heat treated steel gears. This provided better sleep at night and I went on to worry about other things........