Flat cam lobe

[squeeze87]

Well, i found where my mph went. used a 1" travel indicator and found #1 exaust ony lifted .140 at the valve compared to .260 on #3 and #5. didnt even check 2,4 or 6. I have heard that once a motor wipes out a lobe the liklihood is it will do it again. has anyone wiped a lobe then had success installing a new flat tappet cam? I dont really want to spend the money on a roller if i dont have to. Also some cam recommendations please. goal is low12's high 11's. How about break in procedures and do's and dont's also? maybe this is what killed my cam. I want to fix this one time and be done! Thanks

 

[MeanBuicks]

Replacing the cam w/o pulling the motor can be done.

I did just that when a roughly 20,000-mile 200-200 cam went down on me some years ago. Assuming that you don't have issues with your valve springs, pushrods, lifter bores, etc. you can replace the cam successfully.

I did the following:

• Pulled the pan, hand-polished the crank rod journals & replaced rod bearings.
• Cleaned the crankcase area and pan thouroughly with carb. cleaner.
• JB Welded transmission magnets in the bottom of the oil pan to catch additional trash that I may have missed.
• Inspected the oil pump carefully.
• Had the replacement cam and rod bearings coated with the Polydyn dry-film lubricant.
• Changed oil after a couple hundred miles on the replacement cam.

That was around 80,000 miles ago.

 

[Richard Inglett]

Pay Now or Pay Later.

Afraid I'm one of the guys who has not had success with flat tappet cams. Wiped out three Comp 218's and one Comp 206. At best, could only get 12,000 miles from one of these aftermarket cams. Had enough so I switched to a 210/210 billet roller cam and have been happy ever since. If I had to do it all over, stock or roller. No in between.

For the times you want to run, a stock replacement should be fine. Recently heard that the cam is no longer available from GM but that it is still available from the original supplier. Sure someone will post the information. But if you decide that a billet roller cam is your preference, the Weber 206 will likely make you very happy.

 

[squeeze87]

Weber 206?

Does this vendor have a web site??

 

[Nick Micale]

The 206/206 billet roller you can get from Comp Cams as does Weber. However, Weber does supply an entire kit which probably is $1100 or more, depending on what price lifters will now be?

 

[REDS HOT AIR]

sealed power/speedpro cams seem to be fine

go up and do a search for either or both names and see if you find any failures.

 

[TurboDave]

It's NOT at all true that once a car wipes a cam it's going to continue to do so.

At least not in my experieces. Replaced mine about 35,000 miles back and it's still going strong. Put one in my daughters car a couple years ago, hers is still going strong.

There's really only two reasons that come to mind as to why a car would continue to wipe cam lobes after replacement:

1. The block has a badly positioned lifter bore
2. Installation was improper.