I haven't found a poll like this, so hear goes:

I searched, and found people who have spun bearings, but I'm wondering if I can find out just how common it is with a cam install.

So if you have installed a cam in your LT1, have you spun a bearing or not.

If you did spin a bearing, any details would be good.

If not, how many miles do you have on the new cam, and what abuse does it see in your driving style?

Thanks,
Dan

 

about 90k mile car
5k miles with cam.

daily driver and will drive it hard once and a a while but mostly not

 

this has been beat to death

what spins bearings is a poor quality install generally speaking

or a cam is installed after some other engine problem like blown head gasket and in reality the bearings got trashed or made very weak by overheat or coolant in the oil

 

I put a cam in at 119k.
All I did was make sure the cam sat in the gruves in the bearings (they will be very noticeble)

 

My car did fine with the cam. Instead of spinning a bearing, I blew a tranny. :-/

LT4 hotcam at 96k, 98k on it now.

 

You always hear about the people that spin the bearings, but no one posts just because they don't spin a bearing so that blows it way out of porportion jfyi. And no I didn't spin a bearing yet, ~1500 miles after the install and I don't exactly baby it.

 

Not yet.

 

Exactly the reason for this thread. You always hear about the problems, but not as many success stories. I'm trying to understand what % of people have problems with bearings after a cam install. I hope this thread helps answer that.

Dan

 

Cam has 30k on it, i beat the **** out of my car everyday, thats why i just had to rebuild it

 

3,500 hard miles and no problems yet. I do notice more engine noise
that I think is attributable to the LT4 ED timing set, but I'm not sure.
I only notice the sound at idle and it's a very subtle yet noticable sound.
Not a rocker type sound and not a gear type sound, just something that
is different, that has been there from the moment I started the car with
the new parts.

I was very careful and clean during the cam install. I did notice a bit more
metal dust on the magnetic drain plug after the first 2,000 miles, but nothing
shocking. I'll let you know if I see anything alarming at the next oil change.

 

I installed the CC306 in with 82k on the motor, also switched to cloyes t/c, elec. w/p,headers,RR's blah blah, at the same time. Very carefull with install,no probs. at all (done a few before), car fired right up and ran perfect. I drove it hard for bout 500 miles, then boom! Spun every single bearing except for the no. 8 rod, including the mains. Now;the car seen 7k rpm shifts several times after cam install, it was still pulling so i stayed in it. I'd say thats the main prob. with my "misshap" anyways, and i've noticed alot of others shifted alittle higher after cam swap. I also blew a head gasket bout 50 miles after cam install also, and the car got REAL hot twice. Motor also had prob. 20 bottles of 150 shot sprayed before the cam swap, so the motor wasnt baby'd by no means. But i've heard of alot of people that spin bearings on low mileage motors, and shift at 6k or so, who knows, just another f-body mystery

 

So, at this point in the poll it's about a 25 to 1 chance that you won't spin a bearing with a cam install. Sounds pretty good to me. Plus, the one that did spin a bearing saw some serious abuse.

Dan

 

20k on new cam, several quarter mile passes with heavy N2O. No tune yet either, so it is way fat. Did blow tranny after half season at the strip.

 

6500 miles on heads/cam, Completey destroyed a set of valve springs with 7000+ over-revs, missed gears several times and hit 7000+, still running strong BABY!!!!

 

Spun SOMETHING 2K after cam install and 200 after heads ported.

Car/Engine had less than 7k on the clock. VERY easy miles.

Work done by so-called professional mech with so-called excellant reputation.

Decided not to use them again after the install of new short block.

Why the engine went to hell is a mystery to me and will remain so for eternity.