Ok I recently sold my long block to an individual and when he took it apart he found that there were a couple of issues and so I just bought back the engine. Anyway I had this engine rebuilt with forged interals and stock crank by a shop about 3 years ago and it hasn't been apart since. Anyway my setup was built for FI stock 346 displacement nothing to fancy. The problem the guy found was that when he tried to take the cam out he it took more force than normal and when it did finally come out the cam bearing in the front cam with it. Ok here is where it gets weird. The guy told me that the bearing looked as if it had been installed to far back into the block. So far infact that it was in the direct path of the lifters. Heck it was even past the oiling journal. Anyway there is what looks to be like a channel cut out of the bearing so the lifter would clear!! It might also be where the bearing walked and the lifter hit it but there isn't any big chuncks of metal in the pan or anywhere else for that matter. Plus it looks like a nice clean cut. Now little more background on the engine. When I picked the car up a long time ago when it was first built I noticed that the oil pressure was low I would say 40lbs at cold start up and between 20 and 10lbs warm at idle sometimes lower. I called and told the shop about the problem and they said it was performance bearings causing the low oil pressure!?!? I had never heard that before? Can a cam bearing installed wrong cause low oil pressure? Can a cam bearing "walk"? The cam was only riding on about an 1/8th inch of the bearing and the cam was starting to make a pretty good grove. So is this a freak accident or is someone to blame here? I have pics of the cam bearing I will try to post up.

 

The U shaped cut is where the lifter was pasing through and the other cut was to get the bearing off the cam.

 

Here is some of the grooves the cam made. Oh yeah and the lope of the cam was also hitting the inside of the bearing a little.

 

Anyone???

 

The ls1 block can take alot of power. However. its does flex alot. With all that flex its possiable the bearing wadded up on the camshaft. To top it off it could be the cam bearing was not properly installed and spun in the bore as well or the bearing was not line honed after instillation.

 

Probably just fix it and go on but damn this sux.

 

Could this cause low oil pressure from the beggining?

 

Low oil pressure is usually caused by a loose bottom end or a weak oil pump, being a camshaft bearing, it is possible.

 

Humm I am going to take the bottom end apart this evening so hopefully nothing else is messed up.

 

Took the bottom end apart and it looked ok but there were metal shavings everywhere from the bearing. I guess it's time for a total go through. This sux.