What would you do with this 454 and what distributor gear is needed?

[HeavyHauler]

I purchased a rebuilt 1976 Chevy 454 engine from my brother. The engine was in a 1968 Corvette that he had purchased but he never started it. He doesnt know anything about the engine other than what he was told that it had forged pistons and blah,blah,blah. He didnt know what cam was in it. The engine does not have a distributor in it and no oil pump rod either.

Well I wanted to know more about the engine before putting it into my 1968 Chevy SWB so I dissassembled it down to the shortblock and pulled the cam and here is what I have found out.

The engine does have a new hydraulic flat tappet cam and lifters, but there are no numbers to tell you what it is. I tried to measure the cam and the lift seems to measure around .545 on the first lobe,.523 on second lobe,.523 on 3rd lobe and .542 on 3rd lobe of cam. My measuring tool is junk and this is just a estimate at best.

How do I know what distributor or distributor gear to run with this cam and lifters?


The engine has roller rockers on some 781 cast iron cylinder heads. Inside the engine is very clean with new cast pistons and the cylinders have a very good cross hatch. The pistons are cast and have the numbers 1434 D3 cast into the bottom. I did a search on the pistons and they come back as Silvolite cast pistons.They have 060 or 090 stamped into the top of them and I have included a pic. The pistons seem to be approximately .015 in the hole at TDC. It most likely has the factory cast crank in it. I am not sure what the compression ratio would be.

I purchased ARP 135-7901 oil pump shaft to go along with the Melling M71HV oil pump that is already on it.

I was thinking about buying a new Howards cam and direct oiling lifters so I know what I have,but I am also wondering if I should just run the cam that is in it along with some brand new Howards direct oiling lifters to try and protect the cam during the break in period?

I have heard that BBC are known for cam failure during start up and have heard good things about the Howards direct oiling lifters that supply oil to he cam lobes.