Erin Bowhan, Eugene, OR, 1972 Dart Swinger 318

I am 16 and my dad and I are installing a 1975 318 in my '72 Dart, it has been bored .040" and has high compression domed pistons. It also has some kind of aftermarket performance cam in it that we have not been able to identify, we were told that it was an RV2 cam and my dad said that it should be good for torque. My dad is showing me how to gasket match and "clean up" the intake and exhaust ports and we are installing an Edelbrock Torker II intake manifold with a Holley 80457 600cfm with vaccuum secondaries and Hedman headers with dual 2.5" exhaust that were all donated by a sleeper 1975 four door Dart.

My question for you concerns the oil pump drive shaft/distributor drive gear. When we bought new main and rod bearings at the local parts store the manager who my dad has known for years, mentioned that he had a Duster that had the oil pump drive break and wipe out his whole engine! He mentioned that all of the stock ones were weak and that while we have the engine torn apart we should replace it with an aftermarket piece. Are all of the origional shafts faulty or weak? My dad said he read somewhere that the problem was caused by misalignment because of poor machining tolerances and that not all oil pump drive shafts need replacing. We are on a budget and we are wondering if this is something we absolutely should replace while the engine is out of the vehicle and disassembled. Thanks for any help you can provide, my dad said he trusts your opinion and if this is something you think we should do he will go ahead and pay for it even if it is just for his "peace of mind". We are waiting to finish assembling our engine until we hear back from you.

Thank you.