Thanks Bill, and forgot answer your question, no I do not do hand pin striping but I do have a friend here that does..Rob

you don't need the step on cam nose to use the retainer plate? the 10-bolt cover can be retrofitted to the gen 6. and I always thought your screen name came from the fish, not paint work. and every time I see those 20 foot center consoles going by with STRIPPER written on the side I think they are pretty, but their cocaine habits get EXPENSIVE!

To clarify, I have in the striping, graphics, sign business for almost 32 years now but vinyl only now, did some hand painting way back. On the cam I'm not sure on the retainer, I know about the step on the gen VI and know the early gear to gear used one as well, assuming the helical cut gears required one. When I tried a mark IV cam in gen VI the ft was flush with block.

Rob,

The cam gear is .988" thick. If I have a few minutes I will do some measuring on a block and front cover.

I do have a stupid question. Is the chain drive reverse rotation setup something that Mercruiser or OMC etc actually used from the factory ? If so what did they have for a distributor ? I would almost think it would be easier to machine a distributor for a small roller bearing at the top but then I have to wonder how it would get any oil.

Bill, the timing chain is a std GM one, nothing different, marine power(crusader) did that on the GM EST dist. ran several of them, the bearing they used was plastic and I could only 20-40 hours before they failed as well..no way to lube with out taking apart. can you PM me a contact # would love to talk to you on this if you dont mind..Thanks Rob

here's what I had, I took the gen 5 cam out and put it in the gen 6 block the bolt pattern is different between the 2 on the cam. when I put the cam gear on, the cam was coming out of the block cause the cam didn't have the step on it. I try'd different things and nothing worked so I bit the bullet and bought a Teague stage 4 cam to put in my gen 6 block. well that's just my 2 cents.

This is a reverse rotation engine which changes everything

The cam used for the gear to gear reverse rotation setup does not have the std 3 bolt mounting for the cam gear, it uses a stub with a keyway and pressed on, it also used a cam retainer plate much like the gen VI one(on a mark IV) as well. I assume as the gears are helical cut keeps the cam from walking out., pic below of what ft of cam looks like.