Usually, the thrust sends the camshaft deeper into the block. I'm not sure about the inliners as I've never paid any attention to the stockers I've run or worked on.
Yes! My oil pump will run off of the camshaft using the same gear as the distributor. Again, not sure about the induced thrust from this. I'll know before I'm finished assembling this little guy.
My concern with the thrust is really low. I really wanted to know about the strength of the iron gear and the difference in the straight cut and the helical gear teeth. My other concern, the thrust issue, was just as related to the change in timing if the camshaft moved back and forth on acceleration and deceleration. We used a cam button on our V8s to prevent the camshaft from traveling back and forth.
I mentioned the ATI damper because of comments on another thread about harmonic vibrations as related to the four cylinders. Some of the Iron Duke cranks have fewer counter weights and most are much smaller and builders in the past have mentioned the harmonic vibration issue. This particular design, (the ATI damper) is made just for those problems and is "tunable" to help relieve and eliminate harmonics.
MOST of my experience is with V8s in this area. Ford, Chevy/GM, Chrysler race engines ALL benefited from the use of the ATI damper. I HAVE seen several used on inline 6s and even ODD FIRE V6s with no reports of problems and they are inherently safer in high performance applications.
