1a - Why Is a Melonized Gear Included? 

Melonized steel distributor gears are nitrided for wear resistance. Nitriding is a form of case hardening. The item to be treated is heated in a metallurgical oven in an atmosphere of pure nitrogen to form a very hard glass like surface. In the process of heat treatment, areas to be free of nitriding can be painted with masking clay. Cheers

I use the Comp Cams composite gear on my billet steel camshaft in my big block Chevy engines. You can use a bronze gear on the billet cam but I don’t like the way my oil looks when I change my oil, it puts a minute amount of bronze in the oil and I suppose it doesn’t hurt anything but I want to be able to do a better inspection of my oil when I take it out of the pan.

Using a melonized gear on a cam not designed for it, is a recipe for disaster. The ignition system used has literally nothing to do with distributor gear choice...... Not a thing...... All camshafts are designed to use a slightly softer gear than the gear on the camshaft. The width of the wear pattern has just as much to do with installed depth, machining tolerances of the block, core shift, etc. As it does gear type as well. The wear on the V6 gear shown, strongly suggests oil pump chatter/cavitation and timing chain slap, you can see it plainly on the gear.... If you are using an aftermarket cam, change the cam, factory cam, etc, use the gear type the manufacture of the cam core recommends. I have had bronze distributor gears last 100k+ on billet cores, steel cores, oe cores, etc, and they are sacrificial gears that last for years.... The wrong gear, will rip one of the gears to shreds, every time..... So will other mechanical issues left unchecked... Suggesting to use the wrong gear in a V6, is an odd choice to recommend, or even promote... The gear will be far harder than the cam, and chew the cam gear to shreds.....