I became aware of cam bearing honing while researching how to rebuild a 351 Cleveland engine. It's possible that due to the 351's oil passage design and Ford's technique of honing cam bearings on new engines, there's an oil pressure issue with rebuilt Cleveland engines. Then, last night while re-reading Doc Frohmader's series of articles titled Y notta Y-block? I discovered that Y-blocks have the same issue with cam bearing alignment. I'm in the middle of two y-block rebuilds and still have the chance to get the cam bearings honed if I can locate a service or tool to get the job done.



I did a little research on the googles to see if there are cam bearing honing tools available and found some, but the prices are usually out of my range. The subject is mentioned so seldom that there seems to be very little knowledge or understanding of the matter. I think this effects Fords more than Scrubs and that might explain some of the lack of knowledge; in the past more people worked on Scrubs than Fords or anything else.



With regard to the Cleveland oiling issue. My understanding is that the front cam journal is bored and then the rest of the cam bearing journals are bored from the back of the block. Because the bars on the boring machines are horizontal, gravity causes the boring bar to sag by the time it gets to the #2 bearing journal and that the #3, and #4 are likewise effected although to a lesser degree. The result is that the #5 through #2 journals are in alignment with each other but are not lined up with the #1 journal. To make matters worse on the 351 Cleveland, the boring is done with the block upside down so the journals are aimed high, above the #1 journal. If you resort to the usual truck of 'scraping' the bearings, this leaves excess clearance on the underside of the #1 journal.



Because the main oil passage that comes from the pump is routed by the underside of the #1 journal, this excess clearance causes a loss of oil pressure before the oil even has a chance to pressurize the system.



I don't know if this is the cause of the chronic oil pressure issues with Cleveland engines, but it can't be helping.



Does anybody have experience with this? Do people usually scrape their bearings?

Best regards,



Paul Menten

Meridian, Idaho

SUPREME  ;  That's an awfull lot of two's three's and fours .  Fact is Cam journals are "align bored" at the factery , not honed altho they could be in any home shop ... I believe any problem  is due to misalignment at the time of installation ... As  we all know Cam lube before starting the engine is critical , I used to use Lubriplate .....  ALAN B .

I would like to know what Ted or any other engine builders have experienced.  As for Me, I have installed a lot of cam bearings and VERY rarely had to scape a SBC, Y-Block Ford, 385 Ford and a few others, to fit a cam. I have seen some guys have trouble, but it is usually poor installation. On the other hand, BBC, 383-400 and 413-440 Chryslers I have had some horrible misalignment problems. Mostly the Chryslers. There are some engines that need to have the cam bearings "LIne Bored" (diesels like D310 IHC that have semi-finnished bearings) and others can be made to work with a little "scraping".

I guess my point is that if you have the right tool you should have no problem with the cam bearings in your Y, so don't beat yourself up over it.

   God Bless.   Tim                           http://yblockguy.com/

350ci Y-Block FED "Elwood", 301ci Y-Block Unibody LSR "Jake", 312ci Y-Block '58 F-100, 338ci Y-Block powered Model A Tudor

tim@yblockguy.com  Visalia, California    Just west of the Sequoias

I've read somewhere that Cam installation problems crop up fairly often on Y Blocks & may require scraping. However, it has also been stated that some Cams are not aligned true.(by John Mummert?) Also heard that the rear (?) Cam bearing is best installed from the inside for best results. However, this is from memory so I stand to be corrected on this info.

Paul

Hi guys, i,m fearfull of being taken wrongly with this statrment i,m about to make but have got to say it, i am amazed at the number of folks that seem to want to focus on the most hypothetical situations with these engines and parts. It seems some things are put under the thoretical microscope and diluted into a thousand threads, theorys, myths, problems and the reality is the problem is in their minds and not the actual engine. Sure there are obvious questions etc but going off on a theoretical self thought up tangent sure wearies the reader. Anyhow thats what i was thinking, hope you all enjoy the xmas break and do some more work on those cars and yblocks, i know i will be. Regards aussie bill.

  AussieBill            YYYY    Forever Y Block     YYYY

 Down Under, Australia

Bill:

Easy for you to say, work on your cars.  It's summertime at your house.  Here in the northern half of the States, we are in the grip of winter.  Hard to get motivated to work on a car.

John in Selma, IN

John - "The Hoosier Hurricane"

Bill is absolutely right in that there’s way too much thought going into areas that amount to making a mountain out of a mole hill.  I have very little issue with cam bearing installation in general and when there are issues with the camshaft being too tight within the bearings, I’ll usually find a bearing that’s improperly installed or a camshaft that is not straight.  But if you want to be on the safe side, you’ll check the cam bore holes in the block to insure that they are not smaller than specification; this is necessary on the big block scrubs.  The Y’s (and all Fords in general) are typically a non-event as far as cam bearing installation goes.  Besides, in order to be able to ‘hone’ a set of bearings back to a nominal size, they’d have to be undersize to begin with and I’m not aware of these being available in a ready to order form without having to build them from scratch.

Lorena, Texas (South of Waco)

Thanks john, yes it is warm here right now and with daylight saving in this state we get nice light evenings till dark around 8pm. I,m allways amazed how the guys that live with snow in winter have adapted as just another day, i,ve got a pic here of a white mound near a house and you can just make out a tail lite sticking out, wow ,what a lot of work to get it out. and i,m aware of engine water heaters as well. You all deserve praise to do what you do in those conditions. Merry Xmas to all. Aussie Bill.

  AussieBill            YYYY    Forever Y Block     YYYY

 Down Under, Australia

Hi ted, appreciate  your thoughts on that matter. i have found that in some instances the cam bearings may require a lite scrape to enable the cam to be installed with a nice free fit, mainly due to slight bearing misalignement during installation and camshaft not straight also. It may supprise many, just run cam in lathe or on VEE blocks with dial gauge and check runout, i,ve seen them .020 " out of alignment. Warning, be carefull if trying to straighten it, they pop like a carrot. Also when replacing cam bearings, allways measure the journals for reccommended clearances as worn ones were often polished down to .010 U/S and when std bearings were installed then oil pressure loss was at the most important point in the engine, Best regards Aussie bill.

  AussieBill            YYYY    Forever Y Block     YYYY

 Down Under, Australia

Would you tell me what a SCRUB Engine is?

56 VIC  Gene Stoehr Sr.