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Cam bearing help?

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Old Nov 13, 2007 | 03:05 AM
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Low02's Avatar
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Angry Cam bearing help?

Well I'm in the middle of my cam swap and the cam bearings look shot, or at least the 1st one does.

Here's the pics.




My question is do you have to take in down to a bare block to replace them?

I thought about just running it, but i don't want it to blow and risk messing up a new cam, pushrods, and springs.

Last edited by Low02; Nov 13, 2007 at 07:15 PM.
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Old Nov 13, 2007 | 03:16 AM
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When you say they look "Shot".. Describe exactly what you mean.. GM line hones the cam bearings. They do this so everything is perfectly straight. So even when the block is brand new, some of the cam bearings can look like theres a ton of copper showing.
Are they tore up with grooves? Or are they just showing discoloring (wear patches)

Do you have to tear the block down? No, you can pull the bearing and press in a new one. But sometimes that can create more problems than just leaving it alone.

How many miles on the motor?
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Old Nov 13, 2007 | 03:42 AM
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Yea I've read that they line bore them. There is some copper showing, but what I'm worried about is the groves. There by the "oiling holes". If the 1st one is bad I'm sure the rest are in pretty bad shape to.

I had good oil pressure, about 38 at warm idle and about 49ish at 2500 rpm's. The car has a little over 85,000 on it.

Ive also had a "tick tick" come and go for awhile now. I just figured it was piston slap.
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Old Nov 13, 2007 | 07:15 AM
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You can run it, switch to a full syn to be safe and hope ti doesnt blow, if it does just the cam will get chewed up.
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Old Nov 13, 2007 | 01:49 PM
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I found a shop that would do it for 35 bucks but ive got to completely disassemble the motor. I'm just kinda guessing but its probably going to cost around 500 bucks to put it back together. This sucks....
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Old Nov 13, 2007 | 05:11 PM
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Been reading a lot of these threads and everyone just says run it...The one guy that I saw spun a bearing had new ones
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Old Nov 13, 2007 | 06:21 PM
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Ive been reading a bunch also and some of the guys that run it blew up not long after.
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Old Nov 13, 2007 | 07:15 PM
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Mine had all the copper showing w/ some fine scratches and it ran fine for 16k miles. I say run it.
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