Just pulled my stock camshaft out and noticed excess wear on the front cam and felt not one but lots of wear rings in the front cam bearing. This bearing is discolored and clearly shot and should not be reused. The other four journals on the cam look very good so I think the other four bearings are good.



I assume it is possible to replace just the front bearing ith the block still in the car. I have never replaced a cam bearing so can someone explain what would be involved to doing this. Also I do not want to pull the motor to do all five, it really appears thet the others wil be fine.

Thanks

 

Honestly I dont know if it can be changed in the car. I have cahnged them before on an engine on a stand... I dont know if you would have enough room to get the tooling in there. I can go measure the over all length of my tool and you can go see if you have enough room if you want.

 

I have been asking around, getting it out should not be too bad but will require some creativity. I have even heard it can be taken out just like a freeze plug.

Putting it in I can get a 2 piece cam installer tool and use the short section, there is definitely enough room for that. I have also heard that you can use the old bearing and a block of wood as a driving tool.

If anyone has any other ideas please pass them along, I want to change this bearing and take my chances that the rest are okay.

 

if you can get a 2 piece tool then it will probably work. My tool is pretty long, but I bought it for a 1 time use and never used it again. I wasnt aware there was a shorter tool.

I would definately recommend replacing them all, but if you feel the rest are ok and your willing to take a chance then go for it. that bearing is definately shot. The LT1 usually does wear out the front bearing first from what I have read. Its because there is more load on that bearing with the waterpump being driven from the cam gear.

 

Any update on this thread??

I am getting ready to do a cam install in a few weeks and i am worried about my front bearing and not wanting to pull the engine.

Pics of the short tool or a small write up on EXACTLY how you got it out would be awesome!!

 

If you have followed along (another thread), he has pulled the whole engine and found all the cam bearings to be very worn.

 

http://web.camaross.com/forums/showthread.php?t=483830

All five are very bad and unusable.

 

i realize all yours were bad, but just to add to the thread-
i have seen the front bearing worn in most every sbc ive worked on. i would imagine its just loading from the timing chain.

i even worked on a couple of gm 3.0L forklift engines with VERY LOW oil pressure. these engines are basically 1/2 of a 350. (same pistons/timing chain/etc. as a 350 chevy, just 1/2 as many)
anyways, in both engines the culprit was badly worn cam bearings. all other bearings looked excellent.

 

There must be a way to prolong the front bearing life.

 

My bad man, I didn't see it.

 

Not your bad.

OP has his story spread out in a dozen threads instead of keeping them in one place so we can get a coherent picture.