So I pulled my stock cam out today and found this.

The groove is not quite as deep as my fingernail is thick. There is no ridge on the sides, only a depression.

I want that bearing out of there but I'm not equipped to pull the motor in my shop right now (cherry picker is MIA at a friends house).

Anyone replaced the front cam bearing with the motor in the car? If not, think I should risk it?

 

I would call some local machine shops and see what tools you would need to remove the bearing and install a new one.
Might cost a bit of money but it's better than taking the engine out.

edit
As long as that is the only one that's messed up.


Chris G.

 

Just an opinion but if that bearing is like that I would assume the others would be too. So it may be best in the long run to pull the motor and replace them all. But then again Ive never done a cam swamp.

 

I used a very directional flashlight to examine the other bearings and they are A OK looking. Overall the motor doesn't look like it has half the wear a 90k motor should.

A little update, as I believe I may have jumped the gun a bit. I got back in there to investigate a bit more and see how I was going to get the bearing out. I decided to scratch on the mark a bit with my fingernail some more and low and behold what I thought was a depression in the bearing came off and stuck to my finger. Bearing surface is smooth now.

 

When I did my Hot Cam install, I was very concerned about the looks of my front bearing as well. I had a buddy come over to inspect. He told me that in hsi 30 years of working on SBC he could count the number of times he had to change cam bearings on the fingers of 1 hand. He assured me that mine would be fine. I took him at hsi word and I've been running strong for 4 years now.

 

Thanks for the insight. My major concern was what seemed to be a score in the front bearing. With that problem now seeming to be resolved the bearings as a set look pretty good. The front bearing has a bit more wear than the others but I understand that is common on LT1s. Tomorrow after work I will mike the front bearing to make sure its within tolerances and if it checks out I'll move on.