Broke down on the side of the Road today

[Brads70]

Reason I said something is that I had a BB Buick that destroyed the distributor gears, both on cam and distributor. No chunks just heavy wear. Distributor gear was much worse than the cam gear but both were toast. Cam bearing was not installed right/deep enough and starved it for oil. I tore it down and found debris in the crank and cam bearings. Glad I tore it down and didn't just risk it.   

My BB Buick didn't cost anywhere near what a Hemi does.

[Topcat]

Five teeth were grinded down the most.

The Cam teeth are still O.K.

[1 Wild R/T]

Looks like theres more tooth remaining at the bottom of the gear than the top.... If thats true than your oil being non-compressible & holding the gear up scenario doesn't fit.....

[Topcat]

Then all I can think of that's left was the intermediate gear metal wasn't compatible to the cam gear metal.
It slowly wore down until it lost constant gear mesh and that blew out the distributor.

We put the new Mopar performance gear in today and drove the car around for a little while.

So far so good!   

[Cudakiller70]

Then all I can think of that's left was the intermediate gear metal wasn't compatible to the cam gear metal.
It slowly wore down until it lost constant gear

So far so good!   :fingerscrossed

Good to see it's running and you found the problem. Not good that all that metal has been running through your motor, hopefully the filter grabbed most of it.

[HP_Cuda]

I'm about to dump my VR1 oil again and check the filter.

Maybe it's a good time to do the same?

[Topcat]

I'm about to dump my VR1 oil again and check the filter.

Maybe it's a good time to do the same?

My Buddy Dave and I both feel the same on the gear shaft wear:

It didn't happen all at once creating a mass flow of metal fragments into the engine.
Instead, it wore down over time which was at least a year or more.

I drained the oil today and replaced the filter.
I watched as all the oil (in the sun) was pouring into a gallon jug and I never saw any signs of sparkles indicating metal.
At the bottom of the oil catch bowl: No signs of metal.

Keep in mind, this is a very fresh tight engine. Clearances are still pretty close.

Most likely, I dodged a bullet. 

[HP_Cuda]

 

[Cuda Cody]

So glad to see that Hemi running again!   

[YellowThumper]

Great to hear