Cam & Crank

It's finally time to start putting in something that moves.  I had the machinist install the cam bearings.  I paid him less to do it than I would have spent on the tool I would need to do it myself.

Old cam on the left new cam on the right

I went with the Summit Racing 2802 cam.  I've read a lot of reviews that talk about it being pretty wild in a 350, a little lumpy in a 400 and maybe not big enough in a 455.  Since mine is bored and stroked to a 461, I felt pretty comfortable putting it in.  I also talked to a couple of people who have it and they like it.  In the picture above, you can't really see much difference from the stock cam on the left.  I measured it and there's a few thousandths difference in height from center, but the big difference seems to be in the pinnacle of the lobe which is wider and will give a little more duration for an open valve.

So, in it went.  No problems as I carefully put it in through the bearings and continually lubed it with Royal Purple Assembly lube on the bearings.  Then I coated the lobes with the break in lube provided by the manufacturer.  I know a lot of people put the crankshaft in first.  I preferred cam first, because it gave me so much more room to fiddle with the cam from the bottom of the engine without the crankshaft in place.

I was a little worried / concerned about how the cam would stay lined up with the lifters.  As far as I could see, there would be nothing to keep it from sliding back against the block or forward against the cam retainer shown here.  When I put on the timing chain later, it became clear how it's all held together.

Next came the crankshaft.  I used plastigage on each bearing.  They were all very consistent at about .0017 (a little more than the .002 mark but not as wide as .0015) which was right in the middle of my range.  So, in went the crank.

Now, things will start to progress a little faster.  I'm using Royal Purple's assembly lube.  I had a lot of good reports about it and so far, I really like it.  It has the consistency of honey and it's a little difficult to actually get off stuff where you may not want it unless you use brake cleaner or something.  I guess the real test will be when I finally turn the key.