reverse rotation 4.3

Greetings everyone

Im new to the forum and let me start by saying I dont own a boat. Although I am in the US NAVY. Im building a car that requires a reverse rotation motor for the engine swap Im doing. Ive located most of the parts and done a lot of research oh how to switch the motor to reverse rotation however one thing has me stumped so far.
The motor I have is an 88 chevy 4.3. In 88 a roller camshaft was used. I found the camshaft for the reverse rotation firing order however I cannot find the timing gear drive that it requires that keeps the camshaft turning the normal way. All the timing gear drives I find say they are only for the non roller camshafts. Ive talked to a couple marine parts suppliers and they simply say the part is not listed and dont offer me much help after that. So Im hopeing that someone here might have a reverse rotation 4.3 (88-92 with roller lifters) or know somebody that does that can offer me a part number or something. Any help would be appreciated.

Thank you
Damian

Re: reverse rotation 4.3

Ayuh,... What you want, I dont think has Ever been built...

Marine propulsion went to reversing the gear, instead of motors back in the 70s....
No roller cams back then...
You're gonna have to re-engineer this part of your project too...
A torrington bearing,+/or thrust button,..??

Re: reverse rotation 4.3

Based on your name I am going to assume you are building a 1961 Corvair . That is sweet, I have rebuilt a few Corvair engines in my time but never dropped a 4.3 in one . GM did make the 4.3 in a reverse rotation, have you tried calling Comp Cams they might be able to help you out I know they make reverse rotation cams for small blocks

EDIT I might be wrong you have probably done a heck of a lot more research than my little 10 min and failing memory lol but I think you can get a reverse rotation distributor and oil pump and keep the cam running the same direction as the crank

Best of luck and don't forget to post pics in the technical not boat related section of the forum have probably


Bill

Re: reverse rotation 4.3

Thank you gentlemen for taking the time to answer.

Reverse rotation was more common then some may think. Many marine companies sell the complete motors. Im pretty sure it was common practice till the mid 90's. At least thats what my parts sources tell me but Im hardly an expert.

Yes Im stuffing the motor into the back of a 61 corvair sedan. Im having a custom bellhousing made to adapt the motor to the transaxle. I was gonna buy a complete motor from Rapido marine but I decided Id rather build a cheap motor to put in there for now so that I dont blow up a 2k motor. Whats so annoying is I know the parts exist but nobody seems willing to share the part number. The camshaft was easy to get. Hopefully someone reads this and knows exactly what Im talking about.

thank you
Damian

Re: reverse rotation 4.3

Why not just flip the transaxle over and be done?

Re: reverse rotation 4.3

cr2k said:

Why not just flip the transaxle over and be done?

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It doesn't work that way a Corvair has a rear mounted engine the only other way to do it is to change it to a mid-engine but then you loose the back seat.

Hey 61Vair 1st and foremost I want to thank you for serving in the Navy and helping to protect our country. I have a nephew serving on the San Jac (USS San Jacinto)

I found the checking and inspection of the gears on page 826 in the Mercruiser manual #3 and it clearly shows the 2 gear setup to reverse the rotation of the cam

The Melling part # for a small block is Cam gear [FONT=Arial, Helvetica, Sans-serif]MEL2534[/FONT] Crank Gear MEL2535 I don't know if that will work on your 4.3 or not
The Melling Roller cam for RH rotation is [FONT=Arial, Helvetica, Sans-serif]MEL22120[/FONT] that's for a 4.3 without balance shaft. Seeing They make the cam and gear sets I would give them a call Monday to check compatibility

Hope that helps

Re: reverse rotation 4.3

And dont forget a roller cam block will accept a non-roller cam/lifters, so you could use the non-roller gear drive setup. 'nutcase

Re: reverse rotation 4.3

Awesome HVAC thank you!

I have found those melling gears before but what threw me on them was that they read "for solid lifter camshafts". I didnt know however melling made the roller lifter camshaft. Unfortunately I already bought a camshaft for the motor that clevite manufactures (clevite 229-1882). I suppose Ill just have to call a couple more companies. The ones I called didnt list the part number right off the bat and didnt do the research to find the right part. I guess they dont want my money lol.

Thank you
Damian

Re: reverse rotation 4.3

What transaxle did they use in the pantera??????

Re: reverse rotation 4.3

61vair said:

Awesome HVAC thank you!

I have found those melling gears before but what threw me on them was that they read "for solid lifter camshafts". I didnt know however melling made the roller lifter camshaft. Unfortunately I already bought a camshaft for the motor that clevite manufactures (clevite 229-1882). I suppose Ill just have to call a couple more companies. The ones I called didnt list the part number right off the bat and didnt do the research to find the right part. I guess they dont want my money lol.

Thank you
Damian

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Hey Damian,
Your very welcome, what I would do if I was you is first call Melling and Clevite directly They make the roller cams they have to make the gear drive especially Melling

Keep us posted on how you make out


Bill

Re: reverse rotation 4.3

rbh said:

What transaxle did they use in the pantera??????

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351 cu. in. Cleveland engine, ZF five-speed manual transmission

Re: reverse rotation 4.3

Hey guys thank you for all the help. I enden up calling Clevite and they told me to call Cloyes. Cloyes found it in seconds and gave me the part number. The part number is Cloyes 2546s if anyone was interested.

Thank you
Damian

Re: reverse rotation 4.3

Nice when friends give you a push .....and welcome to your new addition