Straight 30 wt here. Right, wrong, indifferent. Years ago ran 20/50 successfully however prefer not to use multi viscosity. What ever works for you I guess but 50 wt? I like bearing clearances a tad on the loose side but....

99% of distributor gear wear gets blamed on a high volume pump but it is almost always caused from using the wrong gear,this is your problem jrider.the bronze gear is not for an endurance engine.

Get a lunati everwear gear. Should solve your problem

what material is it made from?edit in,i looked it up,it is a melonized gear that is correct for most camshafts,most but not all.

Crane Cams Bulletin for distributor mod for oiling bronze gears: http://www.cranecams.com/bulletins_listview.php?s_id=27


And pics, click on view all photos...read captions for each pic
http://www.hotrod.com/articles/cam-modification-tech/

Never used a bronze gear with the exception of a 302 boss.

i used them when i raced blown alcohol boats but i changed them out often,even though i had dry sump oiling the msd 20 mag took a lot of power turning over 4000 rpm.

Why is it important to time the groove with the #1 cylinder?

the oil needs to spray on the driving gear on the cam,that is why the position of the groove is important.

From Cranes website:

This 8620 steel billet material is wonderfully tough stuff, but it can also be very hard on distributor gears! To remedy this, Crane 8620 steel billet cams MUST use a high silicon copper alloy distributor gear, to prevent rapid wear of the camshaft's distributor drive gear. These are usually referred to as "bronze" gears.

MSD says to use the bronze gear to avoid wearing the cam gear?
https://www.summitracing.com/parts/msd-8471

That is the gear I am using.