Any Pontiac guys on here? Need insight.

OldmanRick said
I've been around a few Pont V8's in my early days and i believe you have a cam clearance issue. I know pop doesn't remember the noise but i believe it's been there since the build. I personally didn't have a issue with stock or aftermarket cams on my builds, but there are several factors that can contribute to tight clearance. The rear plug, different thickness thrust plates, aftermarket gears and even the FP eccentric. Been 40ish years since i was into one, so i'd suggest looking into some Pontiac sites to get the latest info. The fact that you found ''some'' metal in the oil leads me to this conclusion.

Good luck with it. I've always had a fondness for those cars.

You sir may be on to something. The first thing I noticed when I popped the intake off is how much offset the cam has compared to the lifters. I know the lifters don't run on the center of the lobes but, this seams extreme to me. The other thing was the end of the oil pump drive rod has some scoring on it so, I wonder if the cam is so far deep in the block that it's pushing on the distributor so hard that the drive rod was actually rubbing the block where it slides down to the the oil pump. The drive rod also has a couple gouges where the distributor shaft key locks into the rod maybe, as if the cam is so deep he had a hell of a time getting distributor in and he laid the wood to it. I also want to add that the first few times we started it the noise was not immediate, the engine would run 5 to 10 seconds then the noise would come in.