Please Learn from my experience with a Chevelle I bought a few years back.

Engine had 800 miles on rebuild, looked great on the builder's invoice, SpeedPro stock 11-1 forged pistons, ARP bolts in re-sized rods, balanced, new vales and guides etc.

Oil came out looking like liquid graphite, sludge in filter. And pan. UH OH!

Bearings were down to base metal, crank had grooves, five rods out of round, loose valve guides and grit everywhere.

After a back to basics rebuild put up great numbers on the dyno and break-in oil came out clean. Runs great and runs to redline with confidence.

Save your nickels and dimes, get a competant engine builder involved, no short cuts, and it will be good for another forty years! :3gears:

There we see the problem and my biggest fear. I never hear anything positive about any machine shop or builder, and when I do, they're halfway across the country and or have a year long waiting list.

From a previous post "The fella who built it also said he'd gladly help rebuild it so that'll be cool!"

Is that not a viable source of help anymore ?

I forgot, honestly. Yeah, I need to reach back out to him.

I pulled the timing cover. The cam is not a 305H, it's a 300H. Much, much milder than I thought. Compare this to the 305H's .575 lift and .253 duration @ .050 and a 110 LSA versus the 300H. It doesn't look like this grind is available anymore, either, so I'm not 100% sure what I want to do.

That looks like a nice street cam. If you can swing it, a roller conversion would be the best insurance against cam failure again. I'm sure there is a cam that is close to, or a copy of, this grind, If not others have called Erson cams and had one made.

There's an NOS one on eBay and I'm really, really tempted to pull the trigger. I'd imagine a vintage, never used one would help circumvent the issues going around with softer cams, no?

Does the NOS cam have original packaging with a date produced on it ? If it's from the 80's or 90's, one would think it was a better quality product back then.

I can say with confidence it has the old Competition Cams box instead of the reds and white COMP logo.

I hope links to it are okay (and please, y'all, don't snipe this from me ��)
1
https://www.ebay.com/itm/12553460773...cAAOSwGcNjM2el

Says it sold at 5:06 pm.... sorry.

I broke down. Cam is bought haha.

That's because it was me lol

I still have to finish tearing it down and get the machine work done, but buying the cam was a big hurdle. I'm glad I hesitated to order one before verifying the grind because I'd have been very, very unhappy to end up buying the wrong one on accident.

Cool... now you need to find out what is the best lifter to buy. I've read about one that has a small oil hole in the bottom to lube the lobe directly.
Time to pull that engine down to the bare block and start cleaning all the metal particles out.

My buddy, who's got plenty of experience with flat tappets, swears by Isky*. So I'll be getting a set of those when it's actually time to put it together. I'm not too sure when I'll rip it down the rest of the way- being a TFT at Ford means my employment is slightly up in the air, and if it wasn't for the perfect timing of an NOS cam of the same grind popping up as soon as I found out what's in it, I wouldn't have bought it. Unfortunately, as is all too common in life, I need to save up for a bit.

Sure, I could tear it down anyway, and I may even do that. I just have concerns I'll lose something critical having it all torn down for ages.

*These specifically look like a safe bet as long as I make sure the lifter bores are right. I'm merely thinking here, but I'd really like to have the cam broken in on a run stand, too, instead of in the car. https://www.summitracing.com/parts/isk-202-hy

If you don't see getting it hot tanked and flushed good for reassembly soon, don't take it apart...:biggthumpup: If I recall, you got a good stand for it ? I would pull the pan and start removing main caps to inspect for shaving damage to the crank and then put them back for now. If the crank is ground up, you know you'll be looking at regrinding at the very least, or replacement. If the mains look good, inspect the rod journals. Get as much inspection work done now, to know what you are facing for parts and cost. Just put everything back for now so nothing gets misplaced.

Pan is off (and very glittery as you all fully called- I'll own that one. I'm very thankful I decided to listen to those who have been there and done that). I'm about to have a week and a half off for Christmas so I'll probably take your advice and tinker here and there.

What prompted the engine teardown, low oil pressure or it was knocking, or something else?

Missing, back firing from wiped out cam lobe(s)

So is he going to replace cam, lifters, springs and flush out the motor and send it?

Or re gasket the engine too, check the deck surfaces, new bearings?

It's going down to a bare block, getting flushed, new bearings, etc. Pretty much everything will be done/checked except the pistons and crank if I can get away with it. Before it was missing, the exhaust lifter on #8 was hammering real bad, too so it was going to need it at some point.

JRC99 i see your also in the metro Detroit area what city ? Im in Clarkston but grew up in warren!

Maybe deck the heads and block or at least have them checked?

Good luck sounds like it will be great once you do all this.

They'll be checked but I can't imagine any warpage. To my knowledge the car wasn't really ran much after the early 90s and we certainly never let it melt down (overheating was another issue it's always had, which I blame on us never tuning it properly, an incorrect fan and or shroud, and probably a worn out radiator.)

As for any performance benefits I'm not really wanting to gain anything. I want it to have, distributor aside, the exact same set up it had for 40 years. It's a weird personal thing I guess- I want to know what this setup's really got in it. Pap never got the time to dial it in and dad and I don't have the knowledge so we never sorted it out. But when it ran close to correct I loved it.

Garden City

Well... news that surprises nobody- cylinder walls will need to be honed at the least. Noticeable scratches- vertical and horizontal. Didn't get pictures as it was on a borescope my buddy brought over. Since it's not going any further any time soon, we bolted the hood back on to get it off the roof. Bummer.

(I'm broke right now and have no extra funds to devote to the car. Backburner it shall stay). I think I'm just gonna enjoy the Foxbody this year (like last year) and worry about the Camaro another time.

Sounds like the best plan for now.Good luck with it in the future bud.

It'll happen some day, I'm sure... I'd feel worse if it were sitting outside or something, but it's safe in a garage at least. I will say while my friend and I were messing with it, a Cardinal showed up and just would not leave. Also worth noting Pap's daily driver was a silver 2000 Town Car. My friend drives a nearly identical '99. Think Pap was checking in to see how it was going.

My advice to you, don't let the project bog down. Keep cleaning as time allows, and collect parts as money allows. Some of the best advice I ever received, try to do something every day. Sometimes it is small and insignificant, but it is progress. Avoid the mindset of "I can't afford it" and allow the car to collect dust. I think I'm fair to say everyone on this forum has experienced what you are going through.

Keep your head up and stay involved. By staying engaged, you never know what may come into your crosshairs. Again, I think many of us on the forum have gotten an olive branch from somebody who knows where you are at. I hope that makes some sense.

Tim

What he said ^^^^

The only current plans I have for it are to buff the paint (never been done- I don't think it was done even when it was painted in 2003/2004, I got a wheel for Christmas in 2023 but never bought pads, don't know why, just kept slipping my mind) and I might clean and condition the top and seats. Otherwise... there's not much I *can* do. I don't want to disassemble the engine further in fear of getting disorganized.

I was bored so I pulled the passenger side head off. This... really doesn't look that bad, at least to my un trained eye. Certainly not the nightmare it looked like on the borescope. I don't quite understand how it looked dreadful on camera yet looks almost fine to my eye but I'll take it.

It does show wear and on a rebuild, you'll want the size measured and determine if a hone and re-ring will be within specs.
The main hurdle you need to get past is the block being taken down to absolute bare and thoroughly cleaned to remove all the metal particles and debris from the cam failure. Any less than meticulously clean and there could be particles left in the block to score new crank and cam bearings.