Flat cam

[sneakysnake]

Whats the worst cam you've seen?I bought this short block 350 4 bolt main motor some years back. Guy said it had bad heads.When I finally tore it down I found this,I'd heard stories of cams going flat but never had one.Two of the lobes are wore smooth down.Rest of the motor seems fine, no ring groove, rods and mains look good.

 

[fuzz]

That's pretty bad. Must have used a good filter if the crank isn't scratched from all that metal...

 

[skull]

283

l had a 1966 6hevelle we bought in 1976 with the stock SBC 283, in the 199O's it started running rough so we tore it down, the cam that came out looked like that one in the picture and it came out in 3 pieces, funny thing the motor started and ran 0K, but it was filthy inside, but the nearest we could figure there was about 25O,OOO miles on the thing, the previous owner turned the odometer over once, we put a ton of miles on the poor thing. the lifters dished and were so messed up they had to be "gently" removed from the crank side with a hammer.

Later

 

[smallfoot]

Another one of those reasons some of us are fond of chebby stuff...you can beat em bad and they'll still run...

 

[Dr Crankenstein]

Gives new meaning to the term, "zero lash".

305's from the early-mid '80's were bad for "soft" cams... swapped a few of 'em... "lobes" were round as round can be...

.

 

[Tripper]

I've flattened a few in my time & always go roller now! Never flattened a roller cam (yet)! [ddd[ddd

BoB

 

[Old Iron]

Other than the zinc being removed from the oil, the lifter bores are not square with the center line of the cam.
You can have the lifter bores honed out square to the cam, use Ford lifters and eliminate that problem.