I had one bad one in my engine, it also had low miles on a fresh rebuild. Mine must have been poor alignment when installed. Had my block cleaned and checked to be safe.
thanks for the reply Brian good to know , there's no other damage other than the cam bearings. Picture of the main bearings, there seems to be wear on the middle bearings at the joint between upper and lower. The cam galleys check out clean thru front to back. Crank checked out in tolerance , cost to clean and polish $50.85, that's going to be the cheapest part of this project. Intake primary and secondary on one side had a 1/8" step half way down the bore, I ground it out with a Dremel. Looks from the picture like I have a little more to grind. Bruce
Original cam bearings suck. Today's replacements are much nicer and don't have the puzzle piece connector.
Fast Engine Parts: Fel-Pro Head Gskt Set.................................260-1012 Valley Pan Gasket Conversion Gskt Set.....260-4012 Clevite 77 Rod Bearings.............................CB610P Hasting Chromalloy Rings............................2M1457P.030 KIT# WBK241 Total $162.32 Clevite Main Bearings.............................MS1457P, $78.51 Clevite Pistons..............................224-1949.030, $136.16 Lifters............................................................L969B, $45.44 Sub Total $422.43 Shipping $4.99 Total $427.42 TA Performance: TA 1529D Formula 2 Engine Break In Additive ............................... $18.00 TA 1529E Formula 3 Engine Oil Super Additive .............................. $18.50 TA 212 350 Hydraulic camshaft…………………………………..…$185.00 TA 1704 Oil pump shim kit……………………………………….... ... $ 16.95 TA 1523 Nine Key double roller timing sets…………………………$145.00 TA 1559 – TEFLON Cam Bearings……………………………….…..$95.00 TA 704C Distributor Curve Kit For 69-75 GM ............................... $ 14.95 Total………………………………………………………………………$493.40 Grand total so far $920.64 in parts, Ouch look like I'm going to blow my $1500 budget. Bruce
It's unbelievable how much time and effort it takes to clean and paint items, spent all one day doing these parts. I made my own TV cable bracket, this is whittled out of the inner fender to firewall bracket off a 73 Electra This is the second time I've used a Mr Gasket 1" carb spacer to get clearance for the TV cable, both times I had to file a notch in it to clear the carb linkage. Bruce
Haha, yep, I was just about to comment and say, Hey Bruce, no safety chain this time???? Glad to see youre making progress, im not having as much luck but pushing forward none the less. Have you had your engine pressure tested for coolant leaks? Aparently a very very small coolant leak can eat away bearings. Not enough to turn oil to choclate milk but enough to destroy the bearings. Likely not the cause since it was only 1 bearing that failed. Are you reusing the cam?
Hi Azeem, Nope not using the same cam, TA 212 is going back in, the complete motor is getting rebuilt, there was wear or peeling out babbit on 3 bearings. I'm keeping a look out for a 455 block for you. I was just helping a guy out who's rebuilding a 400, he sent his cracked heads to Ottawa to have them welded up. thanks Bruce
Making some progress, pistons are in, cam degreed at 106.5, card stated 106. now onto the timing cover.
This is a lot of work, stripped back the wiring harness, added wires for the temp sensor, oil line, tack wire, then the wires for the lock up converter on the tranny, re-wrapped the harness. Motor's coming together, working around rocker shafts back ordered from TA, trying to get everything else done. It's a good thing the weather been lousy this month, I'd be missing out on driving it if the weather was good.:grin: Bruce
Hey glad to see you have a project of your own on the go. SHould try to hook up sometime over the summer.
There's a bunch of us in this area that should get together:grin: :beers2: I've been following your thread on oiling issues, hope you have it all figured out. Got the motor mostly together, enough to drop it in,, worked on the heat riser un-seizing it and installing a new stop pin. Filled it with oil , primed using a cordless drill, got 30 lbs/sq in. oil pressure, spinning the drill at a low speed (60 rpm +/-) http://www.v8buick.com/showthread.php?t=185780&highlight=syringe Bruce
What's in your oil pan Ran into a bit of a snag, the sump on the 350 oil pan is further back than the one on the 340 it hits the center link, I'll have to swap the 340 pan and pick up onto the 350. Here's what was inside the 340 oil pan, about 1/2" thick , gritty on top, looks like clay under the top layer. The motor ran well, I never did a compression test or checked the oil pressure, put 2000 mi on it last year, used/leaked about 1 liter of oil in 2000 mi. Looks like it was slowly eating away at it's self, glad I pulled it and will be able to save it before it blew apart. Bruce
I'm there, picked up 5 gal of hi-test on the way home. Went to fill the cooling system with water, it started pouring out the front of the block:shock: I thought it was coming out a water pump bolt, but it turned out not to be to bad:laugh: Tomorrow night if I don't have any more surprises I'm going to fire it up and run it in. Bruce
Finally fired the 350 this week, After fighting with my haybine, 3 break downs in 3 days, lots of welding practice:laugh: I finally get time to get back at the LeSabre first start up it had 2 oil leaks, a water leak and a squeeling noise, oil filter not screwed on tight enough, oil pressure sending unit leaking, thermostate housing leaking, torque converter cover rubbing on crankshaft. second fire up, thermostate housing still leaking, ran it in anyway, just loosened off the rad cap. Temp never got above 190. http://www.streetfire.net/video/new-buick-350-startup_2272844.htm Video is from the third run last night, no leaks, no squeeling noise, 20 psi oil pressure at 1000 rpm, 40 psi at 1500 rpm, I think I've got a vaccum leak, won't idle at a constant rpm, I put a used brake booster on it, so I'll isolate it, then adjust the timing, look at the distributor springs, then set the idle mixture screws, if that does not fix the problem I'll have to dig deeper. take care Bruce
