I installed a mild hydraulic cam in my 215 stroker motor. After approximately a thousand miles, the motor was torn down due to chronic low oil pressure.With help from several forum members, that problem was solved. The cam was found to have excessive wear on the 2 rearmost lobes. The cam manufacturer’s tech support person claimed that I’d damaged the cam with too much spring pressure. D&D supplied the conical springs. The springs were checked before assembly. Valve spring pressure was measured at 90 pounds at the 1.75” installed height and 175 pounds at .450 lift. Do these spring loads seem excessive. The tech says that break-in should have been done with a lighter spring and then changed the springs.
350 with a 6-71 blower on it. i switch from a hyd cam to solid lifter cam. i have a metal polisher do my engine parts. no cam goo or anything breaking it in. we blew a h/gskt and i got to see the cam/lifters. nothing changed from brand new. i also run plain 10-30 amsoil. not the racing oil. drives the amsoil guy nuts because i don't have big problems. the only issue is cam/dist gear wear because i run 100 psi because of the blower forces. btw, only change oil every other year. with todays tech, they can figure if the cam process is/was good or bad. you need to find that person.
I agree with Jim. Your springs would be considered break-in springs for a bigger cam. The rearmost lobes are the last to get oil and that probably is what did the damage. What cam did you have? Ignore GSJohnny and use lots of cam lube for break-in on the new cam. Get it revving to 2000 rpm right away.
The cam that had lobe wear was a Crower 50229. I replaced it with the Crower 50332 with .488/.490” lift using the same springs. This time I’m using Crower’s Cam Saver lifters with extra lobe oiling. Will check these new lifters soon and hope not to repeat the past failure. Has anybody out there put a hydraulic roller in a “215”. As always, thanks for your responses. The low oil pressure was corrected by enlarging the oil passage and reducing the crank bearing clearances to .001”. Thanks to Jim Blackwood for insisting that .0025 clearance was too much. Really like that 164 mph number.
Ignore GSJohnny and use lots of cam lube for break-in on the new cam. Get it revving to 2000 rpm right away. ouch, that hurts. . just an other method i use that works.
Your spring pressure is not an issue with worn lobes. Your chronic low oil pressure has nothing to do with it either, reason I say that is the cam lobes are lubed by splash, with low oil pressure you have oil squirting out like crazy from excessive bearing clearance, and that oil is thrown around by the spinning crank and rods. Also the bearings would take the hit first from inadequate oil pressure. What I'd scrutinize is are those lifters able to spin freely in their bores as they should? I've had lifters that wouldnt spin and the wear was unbelievable
Lobe wear seems to be almost a total crap shoot these days and why is still a mystery. It's been blamed on everything. Absolutely everything. I have a low mileage engine right now that looks like it will need a new cam despite taking every precaution. Used to be that just never happened. Most knowledgeable people point to the oil. But I'm beginning to wonder. If they could make a suitable oil in the 40's and 50's why is it so hard now? It does begin to look like the only real solution is a roller cam. My question is, if an OEM equivalent or slightly warmer stick is all that's really wanted or desired, Why does the roller cam have to have such radical ramp angles that it needs springs that are twice as stiff as the ones the stock cam used? If the lift is the same (about 1/2 or maybe less) and the duration is the same, why can't it have a relatively mild ramp angle too? Even then it would seem that there is leeway for more area under the curve, maybe even using the stock springs. Jim
The advantages to a roller cam are being able to open the valves faster, keep ‘em open longer, close ‘em faster. Reason for higher spring pressures are the lifters are heavier, and the valve action is much faster. I believe the reason for flat cam failures is the metallurgy isn’t what it was 30/40 years ago, and every vehicle has a roller cam and the aftermarket just doesn’t care about iron flat tappet cam tech anymore, they figure “ go roller” I remember years ago touring thru the USS COD WW2 submarine, a couple volunteers were working on one of the diesels, I looked and to my amazement it had a roller cam. I’d been thru that sub numerous times but that was the first time anyone was working on one of the engines. They did fire it up a few weeks later
Break in procedure? Please tell us how you broke it in. run it at 1000-2200 rpm for 15 minutes constantly raising and lowering the rpm. Never let the rpm sit at one speed.
Roller cam and dual groove front bearing from TA. A bit more $$ but worth it, although that’s just my opinion. As far as a cam stop bumper. Just in case you go in that direction I ordered the TA V6 cam plate and had them machine the cam. Not sure what needs to be done to the block, I left that in the machinist hands.
I guess it’s going to be a roller. It’s a 215 motor so it looks like Chevy roller lifters but the lifter alignment plates will need to be modified , use shorter adjustable push rods and modify the lifter plate retainer. I think there’s no easy solution for roller conversion. Aftermarket rollers and their lifter alignment schemes aren’t as reliable as good ole OEM stuff for long term usage. What do you guys recommend?
Chevy rollers are too long. TA has link bar rollers. You can use the shorter 2.2 four, 3100, 3400V6 rollers if you figure out the spider. Two 86-88 Buick V6 spliced together. Of course you have to use a steel roller cam that is more expensive too.
Let us know what you get figured out, I need a roller cam for a 300. Mild, close to stock specs, 1/2" lift.
Doesn’t seem like the link-bar rollers could equal the reliability of the no moving parts OEM stuff. What year 3.1 @and 3.4 rollers? TA Perf. Wants $335 for the cam, but the extra cost is nothing compared to the aggravation of replacing the flat tapped cams.
I would definitely check the lifter fit and make sure that all seems right. As Mark Demo points out above, if the lifters are not free to do their thing, either due to poor fit, or poor oil pressure, that will most definitely cause excessive cam wear.
Jon, S10 2.2 four or 3100 and 3400 Chevy FWD V6 roller lifters. I would replace the wire clip with C clip in the lifters. Two Spiders to splice and dogbones from 86-87 FWD 3.8 Buick V6. The Buick roller lifters wont work, they are too long like the Chevy V8.
Two sets of these: https://www.ebay.com/itm/Roller-Lif...458bbf76ec0639460eae|ampid:PL_CLK|clp:2334524
