Cause of cam bearing failure
Thread Starter
Teching In
Joined: Mar 2004
Posts: 30
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From: Tx.
Cause of cam bearing failure I am currently swapping cams from a T1 to a FM-11. The T1 cam 221/221 has about 30K on it. In the process of doing this swap they noticed bad wear on the cam bearings.
Jay said it was the worst he had seen! The car is a 98 with 64K miles on it.
I have changed the oil every 3K or so with Valvoline 10W-30 so, has anyone else experinced this kind of wear? Needless to say they are pulling the motor and putting in new bearings. My question is what will prevent this kind of wear.
I will be running Royal Purple 10W-30 from now on!
Not, 5 quarts, but 6 to 6.5, that is what was recommended by RPM.
I wish I would have known this 30K ago. Thanks RPM!
Just wondering if anyone else had this kind of problem?
Many Thanks to RPM!
Now hurry up and get those bearings pressed in!
Jay said it was the worst he had seen! The car is a 98 with 64K miles on it.
I have changed the oil every 3K or so with Valvoline 10W-30 so, has anyone else experinced this kind of wear? Needless to say they are pulling the motor and putting in new bearings. My question is what will prevent this kind of wear.
I will be running Royal Purple 10W-30 from now on!
Not, 5 quarts, but 6 to 6.5, that is what was recommended by RPM.
I wish I would have known this 30K ago. Thanks RPM!
Just wondering if anyone else had this kind of problem?
Many Thanks to RPM!
Now hurry up and get those bearings pressed in!
Thread Starter
Teching In
Joined: Mar 2004
Posts: 30
Likes: 0
From: Tx.
Once again thanks for the info. that is exactly how he described them!
I have placed the call and email.
Are 98's the only one with copper bearings?
Are they any weaker than the others?
I wish I had posted this Fri.
Thanks,
I have placed the call and email.
Are 98's the only one with copper bearings?
Are they any weaker than the others?
I wish I had posted this Fri.
Thanks,
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9 Second Club
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I have never seen a copper bearing except for wear. I have seen alot of them wear out though. I have checked with many dealers and heavy line guys and they say they have never seen bearing like that either. Either way it is worth it to have the block and bearings speced out.
If you have ever looked at a used oil analysis for an LS1, they all show high copper content, especially in the early miles of the motor. The copper level in the oil really doesn't decrease until around 30K miles or so. The source of the copper is believed to be the cam bearings and the way the block is designed. I would verify they are not usable with some measurements as stated above before getting in too deep. Good luck.
SLOWLS1, a friend of mine on here had a LS6 cam in his car when he pulled it out to put a 220 224 cam in he noticed scarred and coppered color on only one bearing on the cam.....since there was nothing he could really do about it at the time he put the new cam in and ran it for probably 25K miles, car never missed a beat nothing unusual in the oil......he recently pulled the heads off flycut his pistons put a set of PRC heads on when he pulled the cam to put the magic stick in this 220 224 cam looked like new....i dont know why it wouldnt be the same as his old ls6 cam but thats how his turned out you might want to give it a try before you fork over all that money for the motor to be pulled and new bearings put in
Thread Starter
Teching In
Joined: Mar 2004
Posts: 30
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From: Tx.
The tech at the shop told me that they were bad. They measured and found bad wear on the bearings. My question is what causes this wear? Could it have been bad install of the old cam?
Just don't want this kind of wear to happen again.
Thanks
Just don't want this kind of wear to happen again.
Thanks
