I got the cam in there, springs on, new lifters, 160* T-stat, Madz28 tune. Started it up to break in the cam this morning, very rough idle, but cleared up in a few seconds, after a few minutes into break-in at 1800-2000 rpms, i noticed a little white smoke from my tail pipe, it didn't smell like coolant burning though, then it started to get a little worse so i cut the breakin short. I do not see any leaks anywhere. pulled the valve covers and saw no milky oil at all, and no milky oil in the pan either, so WTH??? rockers sound waaay too loud too but they all are set correctly. I also lost oil pressure compared to before the cam install, it used to be 20psi hot idle, now its about 10psi hot idle, about 20 psi hot at 2000 rpms?????? My MAP sensor plug is f-ed up so i had to order a new one from GM, what problem would this have caused? Thanks.

 

not sure about LT1's but i did an ls swap before that the map plug was screwed up on and couldnt be plugged in properly... lets just say the stock ls1 sounded like it had a cam and ate plugs like candy.

 

just doing the oil change right now, and the oil looks great, no milkyness and no metal shavings or anything. BUTTTTTT...... I opened the oil cap to pour in the new oil and milky moisture.....WTF where is this water coming from? inside the valve covers looks to be clean oil? im stumped.

 

as far as the oil psi, did the cam bearing get scared?

 

under the oil cap is where a lot of moisture will collect if you have short trips or run times and the oil doesnt reach sufficient temperature to burn off the condensation that collects in it. it will form a light brown sludgy residue. as for your oil psi dropping did you mess with the oil sending unit any, maybe hit it with the intake when you were removing or installing it?

 

How many miles are on the short block? What was the oil pressure at 2,000rpms before the cam swap? I did mine @ 165k and picked up about 5psi of oil pressure after the swap.....

 

Sorry to say, I don't know what your problem is. But there is no break in time with a roller cam. What oil do you normally run? Any chance the white smoke might have been just some moisture in the exhaust from the car sitting a while. Just quessing here.

 

I figured out the water in the valve covers, i put the pcv and intake coolant lines reversed, so oops . I still however had only about 15-20 psi oil pressure cruising around 2000 rpms, it goes up to 40ish around 4000 rpms. When i got back from driving around and getting gas (car has a whole new attitude lol) i pulled in my driveway and it was hot idle had just above the red on oil pressure, no lights though. Shortblock has 95,000 miles on it, using valvoline syntech 5W30. before the cam i had no oil pressure issues. Before cam swap, oil pressure was around 30-40 psi at 2000 rpms with same oil, and always was at 20 psi hot idle. The car ran and is now running very strong. The rockers are still loud, i'll readjust this weekend, i used 1/2 turn past zero lash, too much or not enough? Thanks.

BTW cam bearings looked fine, the front one had a small scratch in it but was nothing you could even feel with your nail, maybe thats the cause of my low oil pressure. I'm wondering if i spun a cam bearing now, what would that sound like?

 

there is most definatly a cam break in session. i dont know who told you there wasn't but there for sure is! it even says it in the GM 93-97 camaro manual. the one straight from GM. i will prove it if i can find the manual. so obviously don't listen to this guy.

 

why dont you read what he wrote again, he's right.

 

And your obviously pretty funny! Please do post up the proper break in for a roller cam. If anything you run the motor x amount of time to get it up to temp and do this a few times to heat cycle the valve springs. Now flat tappets are a different story. BTDT

 

Well anyways back to the post..... I came to the conclusion that i spun a cam bearing, theres some faint noise coming from right about where the front cam bearing would be and oil pressure warm is 6-7 psi idle verified with a mechanical gauge. Looks like im a victim of the cam swap spun bearing deal, 355 rebuild time guess.

 

if the bore wear isnt too bad and money is tight you can just re-ring it and have the journals polished and new bearings put in.

 

im probably gonna go with one of those federal mogul stock premium rebuild kits with the forged pistons and have a machine shop put the short block together with the LT4 hotcam (depending on how the cam surface looks, if its bad i'll just get a new hotcam) and all the other stuff that i bought that has about 1 hour run time on the parts.

 

It is important that the engine starts as quickly as possible. Prolonged cranking may damage the camshaft, lifters and/or followers. Before starting the engine, top off the coolant level and make sure the ignition timing is properly set. After starting the engine, DO NOT let it idle. It is essential to run the engine at 1500-2000 RPM for at least 20 minutes. Because the camshaft and lifters are primarily lubricated bya splash-effect of oil from the crankshaft, any RPM below 1,500 may result in insufficient lubrication and will not rotate the engine fast enought to force the lifters to rotate on the camshaft. The rotation allows the lifters to properly seat against the camshaft during this critical break-in procedure. During the first 20 minutes, carefully monitor oil pressure. If any problems arise, shut down the engine immediately. Remember, DO NOT allow the engine to idle. Finally, repeat start-up procedures beginning with priming the oiling system after the problem has been corrected.
now am i still wrong?