Just looking at the photo of your timing gears installed. Many Cleveland Ford engines, if not all of them, switched to a "two-piece" fuel pump eccentric, your cam gear has a machined surface on the front that looks like it takes a "one-piece" eccentric. The "one piece" eccentric will require the longer dowel pin, which keeps the eccentric from turning. Your engine appears to have the short cam dowel pin, used with the "two -piece" eccentric, as the center part of the "two-piece' has a tang which goes onto the hole to keep it from turning. So, having said that, a "two-piece" eccentric, when attempted to be torqued down, will lock- up on this flat pad. Cam gears used with the "two-piece' eccentric will have a sort of Figure 8 looking machined surface, that lets the outer ring of the eccentric spin on the center part. So, I'm thinking you will need to aquire a "one-piece " eccentric, and swap out the cam dowel pin for the longer one, or, replace the cam gear with a gear machined compatable for a "two-piece". Did you save your old cam gear for reference? It will tell you what the story is. Also, the old addage about ring gaps, which we learned in High School, "....3 to 4 per inch of bore, meaning, standard SAE ring gapping is .003" to .004" x bore size, is a standard "go-to" when no other specifications are given, and works fine. However, if, as you indicated, you filed gaps to the higher measurement, in the window, Don't lose any sleep over it. Engines assembled to the high side of tollerences, rather than the tight side, are always preferred. "There are a lot of good running loose engines out there, but very few good running tight engines". Rings installed at the high side of gap still do their job. In fact, sometimes better. Same goes for rod and main bearing verticle oil clearance. One of the jobs oil does, besides lubricate, is cool. Oil can't keep a bearing cool if it has resistance to flow in - and- out of a bearing, and is a main cause of "spun bearings", heat. Even if one is to set bearing clearances to the high side of clearance, commonly about .003", that means the bearing quite literally has .0015", ( one and a half thousanths) of oil clearance per side. A human hair commonly mearures .002", so in reality, the high side oil clearance isn't really lose as you might perceive it in your head, and, there's less resistance for oil to flow out of the bearing and carry heat away, so it's a good thing, and is the reason performance engine builds will set clearances to the high side. Anyway, just some info to a person rather new to engine assembly, to maybe help you along.
