Anyone using a RCD gear drive for a BBC? Opinions?

Bob

Yep i've had 2. Absolutely some badazz stuff. The first one i used the enderle pump extension and the adapter plate. The little spud that goes in the end of the cam doesn't have a retainer plate so it walked up the drive shaft into the pump extension housing and disengaged from the cam drive. If you go that route you'll need to address that. I put a washer on the pump drive shaft gave it 0.100" or so play and tigg'd it onto the shaft. Never had an issue after that. Second go around i opted for the RCD pump extension and drive shaft, much better piece but pricey. That eliminated the issue i mention above, but you must have the pump extension on the front of the motor as it's what sets camshaft end play. Gets kinda clumsy sometimes when you are degreeing the cam and have the motor sitting on the stand, without the extension in place the cam will fall out of the motor if your stand leans forward and you don't have lifters and what not on it. Has 11 bolts in top sprocket so cam can be degreed in 1 degree increments. Other than those two issues absolutely bad to the bone equipment.

I also run the milodon on my other motor, its really nice equipment too. Camshaft degree is a little less accurate due to only having 7 bolts in the top gear so advance/retard is done in 2 degree increments.

The first RCD i bought was on my blown 555 the second one is on my NA 615, i'll never go back to belts or timing chains (i've had Jesel and high priced chain sets with billet gears). All this noise about harmonics and stuff like that comes with a gear drive, i have not experienced. When you talk with milodon and or RCD they don't seem to hear much about that either. I think the bad rep gear drives get comes from the old dual idler sets that fit under a stock timing cover and were very low quality. These are significantly better quality than the cheap ones.

I have been looking at milodon gear drives. One question, the base of the drive that bolts to the block has two ears that go behind the waterpump. How are you dealing with that in the case of useing a motor plate like in a door car?

Pretty sure Seabass runs one in his Top Dragster.

Don't forget Donovan - I think it is the best piece for the money!

I have one in my engine, very nice piece.

This is also a 14-71 blown application using the Enderle front pump assembly. The RCD was one option Milodon was the other, I need to look at the Donovan also.

I am a bit concerned about the way the Enderle dive is mounted, thanks for the heads up information. Cost is not an issue, (not at this point), reliability is the primary concern.

Bob

We have been running a SUMMERS BROS gear drive on our BBC for almost 20 years.

We also use the cam mounted drive for our Hilborn fuel pump.

This gear drive is obviously bullet proof, it has never been sent in for mnt. and has been on this particular build for about 14 years.

Wooley,

I'm not sure what "ears" you are talking about, both the RCD and Milodon drives i own are on motors with motor plates (both are in dragsters), but both cars run remote mounted water pumps. Can't run a block mounted pump if you are running a cam drive fuel pump.

RPROGAS,

I had both the enderle pump extension on the RCD and the RCD pump extension. Other than the issue with the drive spud backing out of the top gear with the enderle pump extension, that setup worked great. The RCD extension is a real pain in the butt to degree the cam cause the cam kept walking out of the motor when we turned our backs on it and didn't keep a hand on it. If you can deal with that the RCD is likely the best piece. The RCD will force you to have the quick lock clamp on the front so that setup cost an additional 200 bucks or so by the time you buy the adapter and the clamp. The enderle extension setup on either drive does not require that. Stupid thing is with the quick release clamp you now have two quick release options, releasing the quick clamp and removing the enderle pump from the enderle flange by losening the allen bolts in the clamp on the pump. My only guess here is that the original "quick relase" clamp was designed before Enderle made a habit of putting slip collars on the fronts of their pumps. I believe all enderle pumps come with the slip collar for mounting these days.

Kris

I am bringing this old thread back up to see if anyone has any more information on the RCD gear drive. I am leaning towards it with the fuel pump extension and running the Enderle 80 pump. I will be running a carb on this one so will return a lot of fuel.

Have been running the Jesel and CV Products Exceldyne but think a gear drive should be better.

I run one on my 665" build. Won't ever go back to a belt again. Very nice piece, easy to set up and it's actually quieter than my belt was.

I am leaning towards the RCD gear drive, I have a while to decide the cam is custom and takes 16 weeks. Sent the heads out to get ported and all new titanium valves, springs, shaft rockers etc. That will be about a month. My custom pistons just got here, now balance and those will be ready.

Four of my motors have the Jesel belt drive and one the CV Product / Exceldyne belt drive but I think the RCD is the better way to go and going to try it. I know most all race engine builders go with Jesel Belt drive but the RCD sure seems better, stronger and you do not have to change belts. No, I am not looking forward to degreeing the cam in with it but I will be able to do it.

just seems to me the Gear drive is a better option and nobody has gave any reason to dispute it.
Thank you,

Here is a good video explaining how to degree a cam with a gear drive. It was very helpful the first time I degreed mine with a RCD gear drive

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9tdAZtTCabM&t=3s

I have one on each of my engines and have had zero issues with them... I went this route after finding a rock stuck thru my jesel belt...

I know I'm going to catch flak for this but I don't care. I've always believed gear drives are the best way to drive a cam. There is so much bs about transferring harmonics it's laughable. Years ago Car Craft did a shootout with a timing chain, Jesel belt drive, and a Milodon gear drive. the Jesel was down more hp than the other two, until they advanced the cam enough to overcome belt stretch. Even then it only matched, didn't beat them. I have always thought belt drives are grossly overrated. I ran one on my last build because they didn't have a raised cam gear drive available at the time...that has changed. As long as there is a gear drive available, I will continue to run them. When it's time to freshen the engine out of my daughter's car, the Jesel is coming off and a gear drive is going on....and it's one less thing to worry about.

I agree it is hard to go against what all the major engine builders use but I just think the gear drive may be better solution.

If you ask me, your choice is the right one....

Belt drives and ATI dampers to me fall into the same catagory....both overrated. There are better choices out there....