Cylinder number 3 intake. The rest of the lifters are fine. I have changed the oil and filter 8 times within the past 2 weeks trying to get rid of ticking till I finally tore it down. PO said valve needed adjustment. Can I get away with a cam and lifters? There is no debris in the oil. Never really saw any road time, just idle, change oil, idle, change oil..etc.

 

Should be fine

Seeing you have 2 completely different lifters (, they aren't even the same height ) it looks like the backyard mech just threw in what he had lying around which may have needed more than just a " adjustment " to fix

 

Some people should not be allowed to even think of working on an engine.

 

Sorry about the photo, that other lifter was just a stock melling lifter that I had to show the difference in height, it was NOT in the motor at all. It sucks not knowing the previous owner did, I swear I learn more and more about this car every day.

 

More than likely the lifters were not assembled properly with the correct break in lube and oil.

Current oils from your local store don't have the recommended ZDDP additive for flat tappet cams and during break in they will cause abnormal wear. I wiped out two lobes back in 2002 because of this and this was before most cam manufactures posted bulletins about it. Prior to this I have installed many cams without any problems.

Make sure that when you get a new cam and lifter combo that they have included their break in lube and a bottle of break in additive. The lube and additive from CompCams has the ZDDP in it and comes with their kits. Also make sure when you change your oil to add a ZDDP additive in it as well. Shell Rotella-T use to have a good amount of ZDDP still in it but I believe they have started to reduce the amount in their oil as well. I just buy one bottle of additive a year since I don't put more than a thousand miles on my car a year.

 

Can I use 15w40 rosella plus the Lucas break in additive for the next cam?

 

This is why I strayed from hydraulic tappet cams…todays oil doesn't have zinc in it, and causes what you're seeing….wiped lobes.

Bestracing pretty much nailed it…use the break-in oil upon first start-up, and continue to use the additive on every oil change. Hopefully the filter caught most of the shavings…it's a good sign if you seen no shavings while draining the oil.

Looks like a cam and lifter change…fun…not…just be real certain your rockers are adjusted properly before you start again.

EDIT: I've heard the rotella oil has zinc, but I've never used it. I seem to remember we used oil that said it was specifically for cam break in, but I can't remember the brand name….plus we used the Lucas break-in additive along with it on my buddy's 400sbc when we ran it for the first time last month. All went well.

 

Should be able to, rotella has 1200ppm minimum in it.

 

I contacted shell a few months ago and their entire rotella line has 1200ppm minimum.

 

Joe Gibbs or Brad Penn break-in oils.

But-I would never suggest just a cam and lifter replacement after that kind of damage.Teardown and a hot tank cleaning is the only way.Other wise you at your own risk.

 

I have to at least get it running to be able to take it somewhere to do the work, the shop I work at is starting to complain about my car being in the shop. Trust me, I know all the risks.

 

Is the engine special? Or is it just a junkyard hodge podge? If there's nothing fancy in it I'd just put a new cam and lifter set in it and see if it lasts. If it's got a bunch of expensive internals it'd be worth pulling it apart to prevent further damage. If it's a 305... I'd just roll with it and see what happens.

BTW, that Melling lifter is actually a GM lifter. They're one of the easy to identify high quality lifters on the market. They're sold under different brands but only one of the major lifter manufacturers make them with the separate joined piece of metal on the lifter face and they're one of the good ones.

http://www.hotrod.com/techarticles/e...ppet_cam_tech/

 

Definitely not a special engine at all, it came with the car. It's a basic 350, fresh rebuild with less than 100 miles on it, all I know about it is it HAD an aftermarket cam lol, 1.52 roller tip rockers, heads are from the 80s, not sure if any work was done to them but it looks like it. I believe it has flat top pistons, I think it's an all around good motor for now as a daily driver. When time and money permits I want to build the motor I WANT for the car, strong internals, low compression for a supercharger..etc So for now I just want to get it back to running state. I don't have much money invested in the motor at all. It actually feels pretty quick.

 

Can I atleast answer you??.A friend doing you a favor flat bed towing it,a rented car dolly pulling the driveshaft,pulling it with a tow rope,etc,etc.....

Might want to rethink your game plan.Why waste a good 350 even if it isn't anything special??. Otherwise what you said is just a cop-out.

One thing for sure,those metal shavings went somewhere,eh.

 

The one and only time I had a cam lobe wear out I pulled the motor and checked everything out. I did not find any shavings in the oil passages, in the heads or in the lifter valley. I only saw some very small shaving is the bottom of the pan and the rest was captured in the oil filter. There also wasn't any damage to the oil pump either. I also had a magnetic drain plug so that helped a bit as well.

I just cleaned the oil pan, oil filter adapter, oil pump and passage between the pump and filter and re-assembled the motor with a new cam and lifter set.

The OP has removed the rocker cover and intake and with inspecting the oil he should see if he has metal all over in the motor. That would be a step in the right direction to start with.

 

The right way to do it is to do a complete tear down, cleaning, and rebuild. You dont HAVE to do it that way but you will have a much higher chance of premature engine failure without doing it the proper way

 

I have found no metal shavings in the oil at all, after a bunch of oil filters I'm sure it got most of it. The oil looks just as new as when it first went in. Hopefully I got lucky.

 

Soooooo all rounded off lobes and engines are alike????.

 

I did post in my last sentence that with the intake and rocker covers off that he is a step in the right direction. Checking the engine for any metal shavings up top.

I guess checking an engine for metal shavings makes a person an idiot, oh well

 

Just so you know not all oil goes through the oil filter as some gets bypassed. No doubt there is some cam/lifter material in the bearings. In my old Pontiac 400 I had a lobe go south and even though everything look "clean" the bearings were riddled with metal shavings and the crank developed some decent sized scores because of it.

 

True, the more crap in the filter, the more oil that gets bypassed.

My cam problem happened 10 years ago in my 86. I just tore my motor down this fall for other reasons and the rod and crank bearings still looked good (no scores) for a 100K motor. I'm not saying just throw a cam and lifter combo in there and just go, I'm saying that he needs to start looking to see if debris has gotten through the motor and go from there.

I had a brand new 1 qt filter on mine and only 2 hours of run time and lost about 0.010 off the top of the lobe. (forgot to add that earlier)

 

Just adding in a suggestion based off 40yrs+ of racing..................

 

So I found the cam that was in there was a comp cam high energy 12-210-2. Was this a good mild street cam?

Is there much of a difference than the edelbrock 2102 cam?

 

That comp cam is better than the edelbrock. Both are a mild/ stock rebuild type cams. I'd choose a comp cam over an edelbrock personally, I've only ever like edelbrocks intake manifold, most of there other "performance" products seem subpar.

 

Is it going to be noticeably slower now? I had only two choices for right now, the performer plus or the performer rpm cam, both edelbrock

 

Explain why after being burned on a flat tappet cam once,your not going belly up to someones parts counter,bite the bullet on costs,and buy a conversion hydro roller cam??.

 

Long story lol, but sometime in the near future maybe around spring time, this engine is getting a complete rebuild. The way I want to build it, not how the previous owner did. Roller cam will be considered along with a lot of other things