I just noticed while priming my oil pump last night, that my stock mercury distributor has the boss (?) that sits at the lifter valley to keep oil from draining through the distributor hole back to the crankcase. This is the first one I've noticed like this.
The tool I use is an older distributor with the top milled down and obviously the teeth milled off the gear. It doesn't have that, and my MSD in the car doesn't either.
Should this be removed to help get oil back to the pan quicker or is there a "marine" reason not too. = )

Just curious.
Thanks.

After further review,,,,,,,,the marine distributor has two holes in it, one above the boss in question and one below. So it appears that the oil from the lifter valley drains through this hole, down the dist shaft and out above the bottom boss. The GM and MSD don't have the holes.
Kinda cool actually.

I have to msd distributors with the holes

Well my MSD's in the cars are a few years older maybe it's a newer or marine thing.