Ted said it, I have a bad problem with knowing what I want to say but saying something else. I did mean to say a wider bearing.

   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

Tim.  Another thanks for doing the video.  It goes a long way towards destroying those old wives tales about it being normal to having to ‘scrape’ the cam bearings on the Y’s.

46yblock.  I feel your pain on the dial up as I'm in the same boat.  As far as the reference to the thicker bearing, 'wider' is the term likely meant.  The front cam bearing is wider and dedicated to the #1 journal as there's more load on the camshaft bearing at that particular position due to the tension created by the timing chain.  For myself, if a camshaft does not free turn easily, then something is not quite right and just requires finding the 'hard' spot whether it is a bearing or a warped shaft.  In the end, you should be able to turn the cam with your fingers at the front snout without much effort.  As far as camshaft warpage goes, I don't have a spec in front of me but up to 0.003" would be tolerable.

Lorena, Texas (South of Waco)

Paul.  It’s a given that the issue with the low oil pressure in the 335 series (351C, 351M, 400M) is indeed well known and so much so that the factory specified oil pressure switch for the stockers was set at six psi to minimize the oil light coming on at idle.  This is not a problem that originates with a rebuild but was present when the engines were first introduced.  I had to deal with these engines when they were new so the problems were well known soon after their introduction and even with a 6 lb oil pressure switch, there were still oil lights coming on at a hot idle in relatively brand new vehicles.  But the cam bearings in that family of engines are a far cry from being the real problem.  The primary issue lies in the main oil gallery and the passenger side lifter bank oil sharing the same oil path instead of having two separate oil galleries.  This ends up having too much oil loss around the lifters themselves and subsequently a serious drop in pressure.  Manufacturing variances in block machine work as well as in the bearing clearances again made some of these engines more marginal than others even though all the clearance specifications were within an allowable range.

Unfortunately the oil gallery design was copied from the 385 series (429/460) and for this you’ll have to thank the bean counters again.  The easy (and somewhat expensive) fix for both the 351C and the 460 engines is to simply bush the lifter bores on the passenger side and have smaller oil feed holes for the lifters.  For performance builds, bushing the lifter bores on both banks is normal.  But if it’s any consolation, when rebuilding the 335 series of engines for stock duty, machining the crankshaft so that the rod and main bearing clearances are on the tight side goes a long way towards insuring a livable oil pressure at hot idle in lieu of some of the more expensive fixes that are performed on performance or racing versions where increased bearing clearances are a necessity.  Going into any more detail regarding lifter bore clearances and the such just gets into more detailed rambling at this point.

Lorena, Texas (South of Waco)

Thanks for the video Tim.  It finally downloaded after 55 minutes.  You mentioned there was a slightly thicker bearing used in the front.  Was that figured so that any scraping that was required would more easily be done at the front?  Also, there are tolerances for cam runout.  Depending upon what a given cam's runout is would seem to determine need for scraping.  My cam was such that scraping was required.  Where is the allowable interferance for hand cam rotation, somewhere between absolutely free and tough to move.

Mike, located in the Siskiyou mountains, Southern, OR 292 powered 1946 Ford 1/2 ton, '62 Mercury Meteor, '55 Country Squire (parting out), '64 Falcon, '54 Ford 600 tractor.

I LOVED the video.



Just goes to show that it's not all that hard to do it right and, ......."That it ain't electrical engineering"!!





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1955 F-600/272/E4OD// Disclaimer: No animals were injured while test driving my F-600 except the ones I ran over intentionally!

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This post was created using OpenSuSE Linux x64 and Firefox

Here is a little video that I put together to show cam bearing installation, no scraping or honing needed.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G1G_qi4oI4o&feature=channel_page

   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

Yes, mountains often get made of molehills, but the issue with low oil pressure in rebuilt Clevelands is pretty well known. People go to strange lengths to compensate for the rebuilt Cleveland's low oil pressure; restrictors and high volume oil pumps. And I don't think that factory Clevelands had oil pressure issues.



The fix seems to be simple but not easy - install the cam bearings the right way. I guess you'd have to have a look at the oil pump and the oil galleys to understand the issue.



I had taken a 351 Cleveland into a shop with a good reputation. He wanted me to bring in an old camshaft to scrape the cam bearings, that's how ingrained that idea is. If I suggested that oversize cam bearings ought to be installed and honed to fit, he'd think I was making mountains. And I'd have to live with the low oil pressure and excess windage and the issues related to that.



I have an Australian Cleveland 302/351 block, "2 bbl" closed chamber heads and 4bbl iron intake manifold to match. I'm holding off on that project until I finish the 292 engines for my 54 F100 and 56 Fairlane.

Best regards,



Paul Menten

Meridian, Idaho

I seem to remember asking the very same question when I was a newbie.

Hang loose and enjoy the ride.

Brisbane Australia

CH**Y....

BOO- YA!!!

Would you tell me what a SCRUB Engine is?

56 VIC  Gene Stoehr Sr.