https://www.texas-speed.com/p-1383-l...od-to-550.aspx

https://www.summitracing.com/parts/cca-787-16

That'll take ANYTHING you're likely to be able to throw at it.

 

You do realize that the metal from the failed cam lobe(s) and lifter(s) is still in your engine and WILL do damage if you don't take the engine out and clean it out completely?
That cam your buddy gave you is too big for a daily driver. Is it new, and if not did you get the lifters with it? If used, I hope he kept the lifters in order. Each lifter MUST go back on the lobe from which it came.

 

Much appreciated, thank you.

NoEmissions, second sentence, opening post, tear down and rebuild. Buddys cam was used for about 6 quarter miles after break in. I have the lifters and I have them in order. Is it bigger than I'd like in a street 350? Probably. Am I going to live with it while I scrape up the money for AFR heads and a 383? Definitely. Besides, if I want quiet idle and manners I'll drive my Canyon. Like I mentioned in the opening post, I'm throwing what I have at it and going to have some fun. I know it's not an optimized set up. I know with another 500 bucks I could build something better, but this is where I'm at.

 

I'm glad you have it covered. I just didn't want you to have to have to do it all over again and spend good money after bad because you didn't know. Obviously, you do.
There's never enough money to build it right, but there's always enough to build it twice!

 

Yeah, tear down and rebuild, for sure.

Rolled cam lobes shed more metal into the oil than just about any other thing that can go wrong. The shavings INVARIABLY get past the filter, and into the passages in the block. Then when that happens, and the unsuspecting well-meaning owner builds the next motor in that block, ALL THOSE CHIPS have ABSOLUTELY NOWHERE ELSE TO GO, other than RIGHT STRAIGHT DIRECTLY INTO the new bearings. And we can all guess what happens next.

The MAIN thing to remember in this situation is, no matter how much you "wish" it were so, the machine-shop vat DOES NOT dissolve metal shavings. You can vat your block every single day for the next year, and TWICE on Sundays just so you can violate a rule, and that crap will STILL be inside your block.

Don't make that mistake.

Take your block to the machine shop. Have them FIRST remove EVERY SINGLE plug in/on/over/about the block, as well as the cam bearings, FIRST. Then once all of those things are gone, have them vat it. (note that I DID NOT say, "don't vat your block", "vat is useless", "I'm the only one that knows this", or ANY SUCH THING... cardo, YES I'm talking to YOU)

Specify that they return the block to you freshly vatted (after all, no sense getting your hands dirty or anything unladylike like that in any of the rest of this) with NO plugs OF ANY KIND ANYWHERE in it, and no cam bearings. Tap the plug holes around the FRONT of the cam for ¼" NPT. Take it to the quarter car wash (you know, that place where you wash ¼ of your car, with a magic wand) along with about 3 cans of engine degreaser (diesel fuel in a spray can), your rifle pistol & shotgun cleaning brushes, and a "toothbrush" sort of wire brush, on a nice warm sunny day early in the morning. Use your .410 brush in the passages that go front-to-rear in the block (around the cam tunnel) and through the vertical passage under the main cap going up to the oil pressure sending unit hole and all the other passages around the oil filter, your .22 or .223 brush in the passages that go vertically through the crank oil feed holes, and the "toothbrush" thing in the cam bearing grooves. If you plan on re-using your crank, use the .22 or .223 brush in the holes through the crank. Spray em with degreaser, wait awhile, brush em, put a quarter in the slot, blast em, ... lather rinse repeat a few times. Put the block out in the sun to dry for a few hours.

Once it's dry, smear the bores with 2-stroke oil and the lifter bores, cam bearing tunnel, and main journals with transmission fluid. ATF on the crank journal surfaces also. Paint the block now too; PLEEEEEEEZE not 60s orange-red. Take it back to the machine shop and have em put in the cam bearings with the oil holes at about 4:30 - 5:00, and all the plugs in EXCEPT FOR the ones around the FRONT of the cam. Make sure they get the one that's about 1" up into the block above the rearmost main cap; if that one is not there, the oil doesn't go through the filter, but rather, dirty oil goes RIGHT STRAIGHT DIRECTLY INTO all the passages feeding everything. Pick up the block and inspect for properly following instructions. Get 3 NPT plugs w/ Allen drive at the hardware store; drill 2 of em with about a #70 drill bit (something around .030", or 1/32", AT MOST) right in the center; put the undrilled one above the cam, and the 2 drilled ones beside the cam.

Then BUILD (not just "assemble") the motor. A topic for another day. Lots of prep there, if you want a motor that runs up to the potential that the parts mfrs claim, and that your peers all complain don't perform up to spec.

 

 

I might ought to add also:

Pray to whatever deity you think might has the most influence over cast iron, that the reason the previous cam wiped out, was NOT The Lifter Bore Problem common in 70s blocks, wherein the lifter bores don't point straight at the cam lobes. Because if it DOES have that, then all the changing of cams in the world, won't ever fix it. It'll STILL wipe lobes, the same ones, over and over again. In my experience, usually toward the rear of the block, usually on the driver's side; but not by any means always or only. Could be any of em. If the lifters and the cam aren't held in the right orientation to each other, the whole system doesn't have the chance of a snowball in Hades of ever working for very long. Might last as long as a fart in a hurricane but probably not even that.

 

 

No problem. It happens sometimes. I recently went through the nightmare of a failed camshaft and wouldn't want to see anyone else have to.

 

Drilling those tiny holes in the plugs makes a little oil "shooter" onto the back of the cam timing sprocket, thus keeping the chain lubed. Plus, it lets air bleed out of the lifter passages quicker at start-up.

You can do that with yerbasic welch plugs but if you're going to the trouble, might as well put in the better ones.

I've had several motors over the years that ate cams, and people used to bring them to me, to build. I lost count of how many times I've seen it. I've seen blocks people brought me straight from the vat, where you could see the piles of metal chips still just laying in all the passages, especially behind the cam bearings. Since those "bake" kind of cleaning processes have become popular, it's gotten worse, since of course that doesn't faze metal shavings in the least; a flat-tappet block that has been cleaned that way ALMOST CERTAINLY still needs a trip to the car wash even if it DIDN'T have a cam lobe wipe or a spun bearing that caused it to be out of the vehicle in the first place.

70s blocks have other Problems as well... starter bolt hole pattern drilled too far from the crank; bell housing dowels not centered on the crank; cylinders that aren't perpendicular to the crank axis, aren't centered over the journals, or both; head dowel pins that seem to be just randomly strafed into the deck; decks at impossible angles to everything; the list just GOES ON.

Personally, I will NEVER AGAIN build a 70s block, unless it's (a) for somebody else, and (b) they sign a waiver of a list of things that can be wrong with THE BLOCK that can't be repaired economically in the field, that can produce a TOTAL FAILURE final result. I'm not going back to the days of a 75 - 80% success rate AT BEST, with VIRTUALLY ALL of the failures due to crap like that. For that matter, I'm thinking my days of building 55 - 2000 SBCs are largely OVER anyway; except for nostalgia purposes, it doesn't make sense anymore. Kinda like building Frod flathead V8s in the 60s became, or some such. At some point, doesn't matter how much you spend on it or how "perfect" you do it, it's still hopelessly outclassed by what's around it.

At the point you're at now, it might be a good time to step back and take a larger view of the path you are on. To "rebuild" a 350 with a wiped cam is going to cost $2000 most likely, you'll assume all manner of risks, and in the end, all you'll have is a ... 350. For about the same money, you can do other things, that will make more power, last longer, cause less trouble, and cost less to operate over the long term. Think of it as, I've got a car with no motor and a pile of money, and I want to unite them into a car that works. NOT, just jump right straight to, I've got a dead 350 and I want to rebuild it. Open up your decision-making process to more options and you'll see what I mean.