worried....... a little

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I will check into it further Saturday. Never had this before. Motor has 120,*** miles and ran pretty good, all original. No lifter ticks, oil light would never come on, even fully warmed up at a low idle in gear. Oil light went off by turning the engine over with the starter. Original timing chain, no oil slinger, no hole in the top left bolt of the cam thrust plate either.
 
What Treblig said,chk the old one.
Also with new one, can you install it a lobe/journal at a time and rotate it? Might help pinpoint the problem area.
Im assuming motor is in car?
You would think with used bearings it would turn without issue??
 
It is more uncommon when a cam in a Mopar turns perfectly on the first attempt IMO!

I just had a custom nitrided cam come in and it would barely turn with a large wrench on the end. Out it comes and start mic'ing the journals, of which 3 are .001"+ above the high spec. In the crank polisher it goes and 10 minutes later and the journals are within spec. Installed the cam in the block and it turns beautiful with a couple of fingers. All that being said....

Install your cam it will be fine and live just fine.

If you're curious then pull it out and mic the journals, also put the cam on some V-blocks and set up and indicator to record any runout.

Again just run it. J.Rob
 
66fs said:
What changed? The cam. It is not straight. Get another. Put a dial indicator on the bearing journals to verify.
Click to expand...


What he said. Flat tappet cam cores are just cast metal. Not hardened. You can shatter one by dropping on concrete and they can be bent by dropping the box. Think about a box of parts, with a cam in a box. If UPS drops the big box and the cam is not flat on the bottom, it can bend very easily from it's own weight. That's why they are packaged so carefully. Put the cam in V blocks and use a dial indicator on it. If you can isolate the bend to one spot, you can carefully straighten it by supporting either side of the bend and adding some carefully applied pressure against the bend. Again verifying it's straight with the V blocks and indicator.
I WOULD NOT RUN IT AS IS UNLESS YOU CAN VERIFY ITS NOT THE CAM ITSELF. If you check and the cam is straight, find the tight spot on the cam bearings and scrape them to clearance it until you can turn it with two fingers 360 degrees.
 
Just curious if the box the cam was in showed any signs of being mishandled?
 
Yesterday I was messing with it before work, trying to hurry. Ok, this morning's conclusion. Today I took the chain off, and I learned it turn equally freely 360 degrees by hand on the nose IF...... I turned it counterclockwise. Clockwise, it had "sticky" points. So, I'm going forward.

Some quick answers to your ideas/questions:
No, the box wasn't damaged
Yes, I tried each journal as I installed it.
I agree that the cam bearings have a "wear pattern" after 120k and that is the cause.
No issues with cam because of the smooth full circle rotation counterclockwise.

Thanks to all that posted ideas/opinions. Now... on with the build. :)
 
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