Please help I got the car in peices right now and the lt1 cam that I have doesnt fit. I just want to make sure that it is an LT1 cam. The old one slides in and out but the new one just will not go in. I stopped pushing on it before I messed up the cam bearing. please help today.......soon

I found out earlier today that the cam in the car was actually undersized. I had a local machine shop turn the lt1 cam on a lathe to get it to fit in the car. Right now were taking a break so I can go to autozone and pick up some last minute things. I hope to have the car running tonight. Hope everything goes great.

Undersized? Are you saying that they used oversized cam bearings in your engine? Were the helll would they get an undersized cam from anyway? Not trying to be a smartass but are you sure that you tried tio install it the right way? You do know that all of the journals arent the same right? How do they know how far to turn each one if they dont have access to the cam bearings? Did you try oiling the cam and turning it slowly while you were trying to install it? New cams dont usaully slid in easily. Again not being a smartass just making sure that you have all of your bases covered. something sounds wrong.


If it were me I would NOT use that cam.

yep the cam journals were different sizes. I'm talking about thousands of an inch but guess what, it didnt fit. We took it to a machine shop and the guy checked it with a caliper. The he broke out the micrometer and told us that the lt1 was the standard size cam. The old cam was undersized. he ground the new cam to sizes of the old cam. We tried everything possible to see if the lt1 cam would go in. The guy at the machine shop was reluctant to do it, but we told him that once this 305 took a downward spiral it was going to be replaced with a 350. We tried tapping the cam in with a rubber mallet, sliding it in with assembly lube, grease, oil, and it would not go. The old cam was about +.012-0.20 too big. sounds stupid but the cam is in the car now. No problems so far and I'm pleased with the results.

sorry +.012-.020" to big.