Yes I know how he altered his cover, but his cam button is only a crude bumper, not one with a bearing in it that would spin with the cam like the one in the link does. This combined with a bushing or Torrington bearing with zero lash would keep everything controlled, that is if the cover expands outward of coarse.
I think I know someone that can make that custom cam bearing(me), I think someone mentioned having some Ampco bronze that was going to be used to make cam bearings as well. I like that idea to repair the block, that would give the bushing extra holding power getting pressed into the cam bore housing! Jim, if you had extras of those shouldered cam bearings, how much would you charge for one? Looks like the sbb 350 and BBB 400/430/455 use the same cam bearings. But the BBB would need to be way bigger diameter stock for the huge cam shoulder those have I would think? Or it would only need to be a fraction of the shoulder diameter, just machine a recess in the cam's shoulder for the Torrington bearing and a bit of clearance for the rest of the shoulder so the lobes line up the way they're supposed to?
The rear of the stock "Nail" cam IS NOT POLISHED from the factory. The snap ring is rounded on one side & flat on the other. The flat points to the rear & the rounded part is towards the cam. There is PLENTY of oil in that location for lubrication, but like said it would difficult to machine a groove in the rear of the block.
It wouldn't be that hard to machine the groove in the rear cam bearing housing with a key cutter and a rotary table! Mart, Dave has a rotary table at his shop and I have a couple of key cutters if you want a snap ring groove in the rear cam bearing housing bore?
The easiest way might be the best way. I'm not nailhead familiar. I like the flanged frt. cam bearing idea. Seems slick idea to me. Just have to have the right material and the means to produce it. Derek, I'm headed north for the weekend, I'll get in touch soon. Check o.d. and i.d. dimensions of your tube or bar stock, see if there is enough to achieve what's needed.
It may be difficult to get the snap groove in exactly the right location, then it may be this cam only specific? Locating / measuring off blk face keeps the cam and crank timing chain gears aligned like originally. More than one way to skin a cat! I just have to pick the right one.
Hope you can get this worked out, sounds like Derek can get you fixed up. That motor was just wanting that 3 on it. I can't help it I can't figure out how to put a beer can on the exhaust to cover up the hole so I can go to the track with the Sp3. LOL. I have a leak at the bottom of the thermostat housing, I found water at the bottom of the intake under carb. This was the second time I have sealed it up now. I thought buying a new thermostat housing for the intake would be a good idea since the old one was pitted up some. Forgot to tell you about that.
Told you, beer can and band clamps. Take that t-stat housing off and sand it smooth on sandpaper on an old glass table top. Don't use your wife's good one!or you'll be sleeping in your Buick!
Arrow left is the "undo" button. I've had a long one or two vanish before. You need at least 12 cans to get enough thickness to hold up around the exhaust. Helps with scavenging or changes sonic tuning or something...
Intentionally choosing the much thinner cans backs up the fact that laminate build ups have potential for greater strength and flexibility. Besides...several cans of soup might make one ill.
So I dug up the Ampco bushing stock I have and it is 2" diameter with around a 1 5/16" hole in it. To make a shouldered cam bearing we would need 2 1/2" diameter stock because the housing bore diameter from the Federal Mogul bearing catalog has a tolerance of 1.9155"/1.9175" for the cam housing bore so 2" diameter stock is to small to get a good enough shoulder out of it. I'm sure we can find something we can use though.
I'm using TA's thrust bumper. Tho I only put about 7 miles on the cam before #3 rod went, I didn't see any weird wear on distributor or cam gear. On Marts distributor gear, I don't think that wear on only 50% of the distributor gear is caused by cam thrust, UNLESS the cam is walking back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. If that's the case then there is an alignment issue, just gotta find out where.
So I need 12 cans of beer to fix the exhaust. that should fix it... or someone. lol Then use the soup cans to get your brain back and all is fixed including the exhaust yeah.
retyping for the 3rd time; https://www.ebay.com/itm/Ina-Nkxr-4...988200?hash=item54520f5068:g:23YAAOSwsBtaA~Zi this is similar to what nascar uses for cam bearings. I bought ones for the front and back bearing, cannot do it for the middle ones. my project for doing this stopped because of not finding a shop with a precision line bore and that could listen to directions/why. now its lack of funds in retirement. boring the block for this bearing and boring for a sandwich bearing or some sort of shouldered bushing would be done at the same time to help alleviate the camshaft walk(60's dance style, lol). also changing the oil pump to run of the c/shaft would be a big help. I have the article someplace in this gonkulator, but cannot find it. so the answer for those who want to improve their 350 is.......MONEY!!!
Rig up a portable line bore using the block as a jig and supports. Indicate from the front and rear bores, check the middle ones for grins and giggles. Money...or time, skill and resourcefulness. Don't order the near $17,000 bearing shown with the related searches, lol.
