Hey fellas, I did a search and didnt come up with much, so I decided to post. I need to change the cam in my 66 BBC chevelle (got a flat lobe or two) and Im wondering if it would be easier, and how it would be done, to just pull the grill etc.. off to change the cam or would I be better off pulling the whole thing?

IMHO, if you have a flat lobe or two those lobes are somewhere in your motor. Generally flat lobes lead to--> yanking the motor, disassembling, cleaning, cleaning, cleaning, cleaning, you guessed it more cleaning, new bearings, new rings, new oil pump, reassembly, then reinstalling the motor.

If you don't do those steps you'll be dissatisfied when you have to redo the bottom end anyway and replace the camshaft yet again.

Your probably right...now I have a great excuse to replace that 396 with the 454 I have in the shed!!

Sorry, I thought you guys were talking about taking out the engine just to change a cam for a BBC, I got worried for a sec for my chevelle because I never did a cam change on a BB yet.

Even my SB powered 66 required dropping the grill to get the cam out... Had to drop the bumper to get the grill off too...

I'd agree with Steve though, that metal went somewhere... Need to get it out...

Originally posted by Steve D 64 SS:
IMHO, if you have a flat lobe or two those lobes are somewhere in your motor. Generally flat lobes lead to--> yanking the motor, disassembling, cleaning, cleaning, cleaning, cleaning, you guessed it more cleaning, new bearings, new rings, new oil pump, reassembly, then reinstalling the motor.

If you don't do those steps you'll be dissatisfied when you have to redo the bottom end anyway and replace the camshaft yet again. Why in the heck would replacing a flat cam require "new bearings, new rings, new oil pump" Russ?

I do agree on the cleaning although I've done a couple without all that cleaning and had no problems that I know of.

Dean,
On the motors with flat cams I dealt with at the Machine shop when disassembled the lobes had scored the bearings, gotten jammed up in the rings and if any of the smaller parts got thru the pickup screen the oil pump was clogged up too. I suppose the oil pump could be cleaned and reused, but I'd be hating if I hadnt replaced a $30 part that just happened to have some stray cam in it that managed to kill the motor again. The cam lobe morsels get mixed in the oil and everywhere oil goes the cam ends up. Hope that makes sense.

chev65elleSS: Thats what we were talking about smile.gif You pretty much have to pull the motor to change the cam on a BBC.

Well that does make sense. redface.gif

I always figured the cam lobe wear would be in such very very small particles.
Maybe I just had good oil filters but I figure if your going to have to do all that then there wouldn't be anything to lose if you try just changing the cam and changing the oil & filter.(except maybe doing the cam twice).

I learn something new every day smile.gif

The 355 in my sons truck/car went thru 2 cams early in its life,,,the first two each lasted 4-5 months,we changed the cam,broke it in,changed the oil,no problems, we've always used WIX filters whether that makes any difference or not and its going on 11 months with the current cam. Now I'm not saying cam material didnt go thru the motor,but it runs great and holds good oil pressure. We went to a higher priced lifter on the last cam change,not sure if that was it or not,or...the previous two cams were too small for the z28 springs :confused: ,each cam we've installed has been slightly larger(more lift). My money is on the higher quality lifters. It seems to me if it takes a while to wear out the cam,you're not going to have too many big pieces floating around in the oil.

For what little this may be worth in my dealership days we NEVER pulled an engine to swap out a cam under warranty. There was NO way the factory would pay for that. All the car got was a cam, lifters , gaskets , new oil and filter. Only the sheet metal necessary to get the cam out was removed.

Clean the engine?? ya sure! ;)

and those cars drove trouble free for many tens of thousands of miles thereafter.

That said, if you have the time and inclination to disassemble and clean your engine have at it.


an afterthought. Years ago I had a 76 impala (used) with a 350 eng. One day the oil light came on and refused to go off. I was suspicious of all this and since it was only a $100. car I decided to do an experiment. I drained the oil changed the filter and added back one quart of dexron atf and one quart of "kwikKleen" solvent and three quarts of oil. I then drove the car back and forth to work for a couple days. Sometime during the 2 days the oil light went out. At the end of the two days I drained the slurry out of the pan. put three more quarts of solvent and 2 of oil in the engine for rinse cycle and ran the engine at idle for 5 minutes. I then drained the whole mess again and did a standard oil change w/filter ran it again for 1/2 hour to get the rest of the solvent out and did the change again. The car suffered NO adverse effects from this AND brought me out to California from Minnesota in 1987. Our small block engines are NOT all that delicate.