Casey96SS

Here is a good one for you guys. I am trying to get my motor torn down to take it to the machine shop. I was in the process of pulling the cam out and I could get it about a third of the way out and it will not go any further. Tried rotating the cam and crank. I tried sliding the cam in and out a few times and I would hear a faint rattling sound which did not seem right. I looked down in the lifter bores and I could see one of the rear cam bearings decided to come out with the cam. Now this loose bearing is preventing me from getting the cam all the way out.

Any idea how I can get the cam out without using it as a big slide hammer and knocking the rest of the bearings out?

I am assuming this means I had a spun cam bearing too. (Which probably explains my lower oil pressure after my cam swap.) Is there a good chance the block is junk if I had a spun cam bearing?

BizZzatch350

iTrader: (33)

The block should be fine, that shouldn't have messed any thing up with the block. Far as getting it out, slide it back in, tell the machine shop good luck and give them a Pepsi.

myltwon

iTrader: (1)

Pull out the rotating assembly and proceed to cut cam into piece from underneath. Or just have the machine shop try getting out.

Puck

iTrader: (17)

Put the block on the floor with the front facing up and lift the cam straight up, giving it a shake or two.

Also can install a cam like that super easy without scratching the bearings.

Casey96SS

I managed to get the cam out. I used a skinny rod through an oil passage to work the loose bearing over the remaining journals. Looks like the cam is toast unfortunately. The #3 journal has grooves in it you can feel with your fingernail. Rather disappointing day in the garage!

superspirit

Remove the rotating assy, then you can work the loose bearing off the cam and remove the cam as normal. it will take a little patience and working the cam in and out and spinning it but it really is the easiest way. I see you did that as I was posting.

kingtal0n

iTrader: (1)

seems like you needed that bearing out of there anyways.

VoyagerCamaro

^Agreed. At least you got it out before it caused anymore damage. I haven't seen this happen before though, lol. What are your plans with this motor?

Casey96SS

Probably should not have ran it up to 6,800 with the original bottom end. Was planning on doing at 7,000ish RPM stock crank 355 with lighter rods and pistons. https://ls1tech.com/forums/lt1-lt4-m...s-welcome.html

Sending my heads to Lloyd to get checked out first because of a coolant loss issue. A lot depends on if the heads are still good or not.

Kind of lost a little motivation now with the trashed cam. Starting to lean towards maybe just a new cam, hone, re-ring, and ARP rod bolts if the stock cylinder bores are still within spec. Kind of hate to put more money into the motor and have something random wipe the whole thing out. Starting to see why things get expensive when you want to push things to the edge and have reliability.

BALLSS

IDK if you can get +.010 O.D. cam bearings but given the bearing spun inside the block I suspect you need the cam bearing engine boss cleaned up....which means the block needs to go to machine shop

At that point a hone & re-ring with all new bearings & fasteners

you play hard....it can get expensive...but we all like to play :-)

Chase Langs

Lol that happened to me when I tore an old lq9 down. Just worked it off the cam bit by bit from the back. Guess that's your sign to spend the 40 bucks for new bearings!

SS RRR

iTrader: (2)

OP,

Did you see any odd behavior with the oil pressure?

Casey96SS

Yes, the oil pressure was lower after the cam swap. Around 10 PSI at idle and it would never get over 40 PSI under full throttle. I do not remember what it was before the cam, but I did notice it was lower after. Occasionally the oil light would come on after an extended hot idle.

Machine shop cannot look at the motor until at least late May, so I will see what they say about the cam bearing bore.

SS RRR

iTrader: (2)

Quite possible the bearing temporarily seized onto the journal. I highly doubt there's anything wrong with the race in the block. The bearing is soft metal and you had oil lubricating the bearing as it was spinning around in the race. This is usually caused by lack of lubrication either from not putting enough oil or lube on the journals or poor oil pressure or the bearings were not installed right, or all the above.

ACE1252

I think the cam bore needs to be measured, just to make sure it's okay.

I replaced my cam bearings myself, but did have to break the edges of the oil passages with a dremel scotch-brite wheel. This also necessitated a full block washing due to that scotch-brite material can pass through an oil filter.

So you have to pull everything from the block. Oil galley plugs, core plugs, the works.

I had a lot of good guidance from the guys on CamaroZ28.com when I was doing it(back around 2010).

I wouldn't say it's for a novice mechanic, but I'm glad I learned how to do it.

http://www.camaroz28.com/forums/lt1-...arings-746672/

http://www.camaroz28.com/forums/lt1-...arings-746672/

http://www.camaroz28.com/forums/lt1-...atches-759853/

BALLSS

with that cam bearing spinning in the race as it seized to cam at some point it is very likely when it did stop spinning in the race it was no longer lined up for the oil passage hole....if it ever did stop spinning in race

At the very least the machine shop should inspect cam race

Casey96SS

Thanks for the input guys! I plan to have to machine shop inspect and rebuild the short block. Not taking any short cuts. I do enjoy working on the car, but do not really feel like having to drop the motor out again any time soon. I still find it amazing how you can basically turn your car into a pile of parts in the garage with mostly basic hand tools over a few weekends.