460 rotor gear connecting gear bad

I have a 75 ford elite with a 460 big block. It came with a rag sitting in the place of the distributor and the cap and wires sitting on that. I bought a new rotor and when I looked in the hole I see some damage to the teeth the new rotor gear will connect to has slight tooth scarring, I haven't bumped it over to see if any teeth were missing completely.  what is the name of this gear and can I access/replace it  without pulling the whole engine, like possibly removing the water pump and timing chain upper gear etc..  should I bump it over and inspect the rest of the gear teeth.  how much do I have to take off to put this new rotor in. also if gear is ok how do I determine tdc and line up everything for the new distributor.

thanks for any help

My thoughts are assuming you have a stock engine with no modifications....

I believe what you are looking at (down in the distributor hole) is the camshaft. The camshaft has the distributor gear teeth cast into it and it is not replaceable without changing the entire camshaft. That would mean taking the front of the engine apart (water pump, timing set, etc). Depending on how you are planning to use the engine, it may work fine as is, depending on the damage of the teeth. It won't hurt to rotate the engine and look at the rest of them.

Top Dead center is simply where the number one piston is at the very top of the compression stroke. One can usually find it by removing the spark plug from that cylinder and placing your thumb OVER (not in) the hole. Then bumping the engine over until it blows your thumb off the hole. Once that happens, you can fine tune top dead center. There should be a timing tab that will get you close. Line up the "10" on the harmonic balancer with the timing tab and then put the distributor in, making sure the rotor is pointing at the number 1 plug wire. You will need a timing light to accurately time it after that, but that should let you start the car.

ok thanks, one of the teeth on the camshaft has a fraction chipped off but turning it over it looks like all the teeth are there. maybe the pin went through it. its a basic stock 1975 460 in a ford elite with 50 k miles on it.

The engine is a 385 series  Ford V8 460 -w- D3VE heads 93-95 cc.  C-6 trans it has PS PB. The AC was removed. it does have an aftermarket Edlebrock on it im unsure what size I think 750. The intake manifold has a sticker that says D5VE not sure if its referring to the manifold itself . I May pull the engine and try and clean it up replace the heads and cam.  Does anybody have any suggestions what aftermarket items I can put on it to increase the ???? horsepower it has now????.  Ebay had some aluminum heads 2 for $899, valve  2.190 to 1.710   comparable to  model p3051 pro comp heads. intake is 275 cc and ex is 100 cc comb 195 cc  .  flow 322 cfm at .600   intake is 1.9cfm at .600  on the exhaust
I have no idea what cam to use  or if those Ebay heads will work for a street legal/weekly driver not a racer just show..  any Idea's ?  I don't want to pay a lot just increase the engine to 350+HP

This is all the info I can find if anyone has any ideas on what heads and cam I should put in it. its basically a stock 75 Elite with the exception of the 750 Edlebrock


Cylinders alignment:
V 8
Displacement:
7536 cm3 / 459.8 cui
Bore:
110.74 mm / 4.36 in
Stroke:
97.79 mm / 3.85 in
Compression ratio:
8 : 1
Horsepower net:
162 kW / 220 PS / 217 hp (SAE net)
/ 4000
Torque net:
495 Nm / 365 ft-lb
/ 2600
Car power to weight ratio net:
79.5 watt/kg / 36 watt/lb
Car weight to power ratio net:
12.6 kg/kW / 9.3 kg/PS / 20.7 lbs/hp

Pictures?

Mr. Elite,

It sounds like you are excited about the possibilities. Congratulations! There are a thousand different ways to get more power. Some are easier than others to achieve. You are at the right place. There are dozens of experts (I'm not one of them) that have posted excellent advice and experiences on this website. Search and read through it and you will find a lot of wisdom. Good luck with your build.

I am excited, but I cant post any pics site wont let me.