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Meh....Ive seen worse. But as a general rule to guys who may be searching this thread and not catch the humor....stock cams are cheap. If you take it out.....just replace it AND the lifters.
Kinda surprising how much wear inside a sbc can happen and the motor keeps running. Just moves lower in power. Plenty of scratches can be found on the bearings to but it will still run until the bearings wear through the entire metal layer in large areas. Driven hard it will fail much faster than if driven lightly.
Dayum, how the hell did those cars run? Mine felt like it was always running on 7 cylinders, just not smooth even though it didn't have a misfire on any cylinder.
As to the engine - Got a roller cam with roller lifters going in with Edelbrock E-Tec heads and air gap intake. Just gonna make due until I can afford a 383 short block, then transfer everything over (except for the cam), mate it up to a 4 speed OD trans, posi rear end, etc......
I did look at a couple of bearings so far, remarkably good condition. No discolorations, copper showing, etc. No scoring on the cylinders, etc.
what roller cam did you choose?
i went with a Howards retro fit 111145-12 with my rebuild.
only went 20thou over, flat tops, fuelie 186 heads 64cc mild clean up, and a edelbrock performer 2101 manifold.
nothing radical, still rams horns exhaust manifolds, kept the stock look for historic rego.
Last edited by riverracer au; 03-24-2017 at 06:05 AM.
Our racer guys had a trick the old timers used to do for cam break in.
Marian (that's really his name) would fill the crank case with 15 qt's of oil.
start the engine so it would idle at 500 rpm. Then adjust the valves with
the engine running.
These had big cams, so 500 rpm was a real feat.
At 500 rpm you could monitor temp, oil pressure and vacuum, then let the
engine run all day if needed. Cam had no lack of lube, that's for sure...
The goal was to get a good break in, but at low rpm levels.
After all adjustment was in. They would drain the oil and add new 6 qt's
and go race. . .
Cam, lifters, pushrods, etc. are all going in the recycle bin. I was just having some fun. I have a roller cam for it.
You don't say if the engine is in the place yet or has been entirely removed??
If it's still installed "good luck" setting the cam end play with a button?? Not all that easy working under the hood?
Our new setup, explained below here, requires no more "chasing" cam end-play or any cam buttons. Also allows the use of the factory OEM timing covers.
Thanks, Gary in N.Y.
P.S. We now have a way to use the later stepped-nose roller cams (hydraulic or solid) in these early castings, BUT, the minor machining needed has to be done on an empty block. Here's a shot of one ready to go. We also have a limited supply of the complete tooling to do the job, requires a floor-model drill press and some limited "drilling/tapping" skills. Also a shot of the "locating-discs" to center it all.
03-23-2017, 09:31 PM
