solid roller camshaft repair

Has anyone had the journals of a solid roller cam repaired with any luck? I have two that fell victim to a cam bearing "upgrade" in two different engines. I hate to throw them away if they can be repaired.

snuff98 wrote:Has anyone had the journals of a solid roller cam repaired with any luck?  I have two that fell victim to a cam bearing "upgrade" in two different engines.  I hate to throw them away if they can be repaired.

The main journals can be welded, straightened and reground.
If enough heat is used,  it should get re-hardened or Nitrided.

Whether they CAN be repaired and a "cost effective repair" are two different things sometimes.

Just ordered two new ones before everything gets shut down. Enjoy your money, meat, guns, and internal combustion engines while you can. There is no room for that in the "Green New Deal"!

dfree383 wrote:
F the gd

Amen!

Cam bearing upgrade? To what?

First off I have replaced hundreds of sets of cam bearings in my shop over the last 24 years and never had a cam bearing failure. Clearances were checked, adjusted by polishing cam journals and rechecked. These two engines that have been in service for a while with stock part number bearings for 385 series engines. The bearings that failed were the 351c type, durabond brand.

Thank you that is why I asked. I just bought 5 "wide' #1 351C cam bearings for my 545 engine. I am going to use a Comp 8620 steel roller and don't want any "issues". It's just as easy to use a normal set if there is some problem with using the wide ones.

The wide ones are the only way to go in my opinion.

I've used them several times and never had an issue with them.

I don't know for sure what caused the failure. If it was my first cam bearing install I could say that it probably was my fault or if it happened on an old junkyard block that I did not know the history or condition of the cam tunnel. I will go with the stats of the bearing sets that I have personally installed over more then a couple of decades ,NO cam bearing failures EVER, until now two different engines within one week, both using #1 351c cam bearings in all five positions. I will avoid that part number like a basket filled with rattle snakes! Has anyone else on here had cam bearing failure with the 351c "upgrade"?

Is that the bearing # you have always used?

First time using the 351c #1 bearing, all other installations were shelf stock 429-460 bearings or whatever engine I was rebuilding at the time, from farm tractor to race car. The bearings in question seamed to have a much softer inlay that was very easily marked during installation.

Thanks for the heads up! I too have installed hundreds of cam bearings and was surprised to see you had a problem. I installed mine over the weekend and the cam turns nicely , just like when I use a normal set. I'm going to run them as is. Selfishly , I'm banking on your thinking it might be your "unknown" block.

snuff98 wrote:First time using the 351c #1 bearing, all other installations were shelf stock 429-460 bearings or whatever engine I was rebuilding at the time, from farm tractor to race car. The bearings in question seamed to have a much softer inlay that was very easily marked during installation.

WHY fix whats not broken?

Most any time an engine sticks a cam bearing it's the housing bore too small, fat cam journal or both.

I agree with Lem about the suspect causes but you can throw out the housing bore issue on these two particular engine blocks , I installed cam bearings in the stock block about 12 years ago with no issues and the a460 block about 5 years ago with no issues. Cam journals on both new cams were .001-.0012 fatter than the cams they replaced. The cams were both brought to a machine shop for polishing and fit. Both cams turned very easily with only fingertips on the cam bolt. Not laying blame on anyone, just never worried about cam bearings now I am gun shy. Old cam bearings were removed to hot tank blocks for fresh builds, That is why they were replaced by the "upgrade".

Contact Delta Cams in Washington State. They have ground a few from me using steel cores. If the journals can be safely repaired, they'll know and will probably be able to do it.