Cmr0z28

Title says it all....the purpose of this thread is to help me sleep at night and restore confidence/motivation in installing my cam.

Also, mileage, what oil you run, etc would be helpful.

fastchevy

My current ride is basically stock since it's my only mode of transportation right now.
But in the past I've done cam swaps/head swaps and never had any problems.
I always use Castrol Syntec and they were almost always on decently high mileage cars

89385formula

Mine never spun a bearing. It was a 94 Z-28 M6. I had the XE 224/230 installed at 90K miles. I used plain old conventional 10w-40 oil.

jssws-6

I'm no mechanic, I did just fine with my install fired right up runs great, 1 year only 5000 miles into new CC305 cam.
I'm gettig about 16- 18 mpg I guess try not to look at that.
I run Castrol Syntec 0W-30 European Formula ( must say made in Germany )

wrd1972

This is a great post, I am still a bit gun shy.

Cmr0z28

Thanks...500 miles after the cam install, I think I'm going to switch to that german Castrol. Right now I'm running 10w40 GTX.

pearlpurple

I have done cam swaps in the past with no poblems. The one that really comes to mind is my 1981 Cutlass, 305 with 2-3 oil psi at idle when hot. I was a poor college student and had a cam and lifters swapped them in and the car ran for another 30K before the body was too rotted.

I did my current Z28 (heads & lifters only) when I blew a head gasket about 50K ago still runs very strong.

I think the main thing is be very clean when inside your engine, I covered up the lifter gallery very well when cleaning gasket material and junk, used a shop vacuum a lot to keep pickng up the loose debris, and once I got it running I made sure it was runing perfectly before using the vehicle. Also I took it nice and easy for a full tank of fuel noting if all guages and engine parameters are running normal.

Javier97Z28

Well.. not for you since you know me, but for others

About 13,000 miles, probably 150 track passes. Stock oil pressure (no changes after cam)...

Cheap valvoline 10W30 for "break in".. after 500 miles, Mobil 1 10W30 went back in. Changed the oil after 20 minutes of runtime after the car was buttoned up.

T/A Racer

i read all these posts about people being fine with a cam install on otherwise basically stock engine too. so i did it. now im payin for a stroker. the cam install was very clean and done by me and a guy who builds engines. it didnt matter i still took out a rod bearing. id say go for it unless youd be totally screwed if it ends up happening to you. if youd really be SOL if something happens then in my opinion its not worth it. a lot a people get away with it just fine. then again seems like quite a few people have some problems "eventually". by only hearing about the guys who get away with it though it wouldnt really make me sleep any better. survey enough people for only one answer and itll seem like everybody gets away with it. sorry to break the happy circle and the rules of this thread.

Cmr0z28

T/A Racer-

It's all good. Any input is very much appreciated...

I just don't understand what causes the damn rod bearings to go though. Was the inside of the motor clean? Did you nick a bearing sliding the cam out/in? Lack of oil pressure? Were the bearings worn?

SSmoked

Pulled my motor at 130k for one with 60k with mod's in sig. I did everything at the same time and it still runs strong. I just run some cheap 10W30 oil too. Also, that was my first time pulling a motor/trans doing a timeing chain ect... Not bad for a noob.

blkchevyz

i've had the stock, hot cam, 306 and now a fms custom in my stock bottom end.
no problem so far.

T/A Racer

no, the engine was very well taken care of, im adamant about changing oil and maintenance. probably because i work at an autoshop and see what happens to engines that dont have that kind of care. , none of the bearings where nicked on the install but the front cam bearing was worn. this is suposedly kind of common from that funky water pump drive shaft putting some kind of side load on that bearing. anyways we replaced that bearing very carefully and cleaned everything before and after the install. all the right things were prelubbed and oil was changed with mobil 10w-30 often. after 10k miles pulling pretty hard on it, nothing way extreme she spun a #2 rod bearing bearing. with the rod bearing gone i still had decent oil pressure 20 idle and about 35 WOT but it was knockin for sure. before the came install WOT oil pressure was probably 45-50. i still even had the stock rev limiter of 5700 or whatever it is. now with my new build its going to be 6200

84 monte SS

About 8K on the motor with the cam, 103K on the motor, i use bobo brand 10w30 and beat the living **** out of my car. No problems thusfar.

WS Sick

On my 93 I changed the cam twice, the first time around 45,000 miles, it ran strong. I sold it around the 109,000 mile mark.

My 97 spun a bearing on cam change about 100 miles afterwards.

Now in that same 97s block I have changed the cam 3 times with the 383.

I am very clean and keep everything covered etc.

My feelings on my 97 are that it was headed there anyway.
I bought the car extremely cheap from a kid headed to college and he drove it VERY VERY hard. He later even laughed and told me he had ran it almost dry of oil once (had a rear main seal leak) and when he checked the oil (his dad told him to because it was tapping) it did not register on the dipstick.