Blue Thunder Camshaft Thrust Plate 1965-1976 Ford FE 330/352/360/390/427/428

Description

New Blue Thunder Camshaft Thrust Plate 1965-1976 Ford FE 330/352/360/390/427/428.
A little more than 10 years ago Blue Thunder came to us with a situation they were experiencing on their Bronze thrust plates, where they had experienced abnormal wearing at the cam to thrust location. We spoke with the customer, the dealer and our engineer friends at Roush. Like most every problem we start at the beginning. We contacted Ford and were able to acquire original prints and specifications for their cast iron thrust plate, then we acquired a couple used pieces as well as one that had never been used. Here’s what we found:
When Ford first manufacture their camshaft thrust plates for the Ford FE application they knew the best material would be cast iron due to the microscopic porosity that helps saturate and hold oil thus eliminating friction. Since then there has been numerous different manufacturers that try to make superior pieces, some have succeeded by using precious metals (like bronze) and some have failed using metals that have improper metal compositions.
Our results found that the bronze thrust plate manufactured by Blue Thunder was the superior thrust plate; however, our research also found that cam manufacturer had not been properly removing burrs from their camshafts thus creating a situation where the Ferrous cam would eat/grind into the nonferrous bronze thrust plate creating Bronze metal fragments within the engine.
Our conclusion is very simple , we needed to create a thrust plate that has good wear characteristics yet would not get destroyed due to manufacturing defects like burrs on camshafts. Though the cast iron thrust plate was good for the time (especially for holding oil), we needed a thrust plate with characters that would both break-in an engine as well as long term applications. Answer: A thrust plate that has the proper amount of chromium and nickel that has been aircraft etched across the surfaces allowing oil to saturate and stay between the cam and thrust plate, with a molybdenum disulfide coating that reduces friction during the break-in of an engine. This is the thrust plate in the listing! About 6 months ago Blue Thunder reached out to us about the purchase of larger quantities to get the thrust plates under .00, so we’re now selling them to the general public.
Please keep in mind that
if your cam shaft does have a burr and rubs against other mechanical features within your engine there is a high probability of fragments coming off the cam and entering your oiling system
, so no matter who’s components you use make sure there are no manufactured defects when assembling your engine like burrs!