Technical Newb cam question

A little back story....
Swapping a '86 305 into my '54. The engine I picked up (running/driving) has 170K km on it.
I'm not exactly sure the cam is up to spec wear wise. So, I'm thinking replacing the cam and lifters.
This motor upgrades are just an exterior cleaning, adding new timing chain and gears, oil pump, re-gasketing to seal it up, a set of rams horns manifolds, an Edelbrock performer intake with a 1405 Edelbrock carb.
Now...without seriously cleaning the inside of the block, should I make an attempt to clean the lifter bores to be sure the new lifters don't bind or stick?

 

Do timing chain and gears too. My wifes 305 in her Firechicken had the plastic type cam gear. I guess you will have to see how much sludge is in the intake valley and determine how much to clean it.

 

Remember to use cam lube on cam , lifters and new bearings. See how the lifter bores are but it won't hurt to wipe them down and inspect.

 

I don't know whether or not that engine specifically has the nylon timing gear, but I agree with bigduece that that gear and chain should be replaced.
I have pulled several high mileage engines apart that had these gears, and the timing gear was badly damaged and the chain was loose in every case, in one case, badly enough that it was probably the cause of the engine being retired.
When I was younger, and the engine I was working on was otherwise in good condition, I pulled the intake, and washed the valley and the lifter holes by spraying the area down with solvent several times. After each spraying, I recovered the solvent by draining the oil pan. I prefer removing the pan and cleaning it first before starting this process.
I used a hand spray pump that you would normally use for spraying trees. It worked well for me.
I always replaced the main and rod bearings, because I felt that if I was going spend that much time on an engine, it was cheap insurance to have a look at how much wear there was, and to replace the bearings.
Bob

 

That year 305 has a CR of 8.2:1 or 8.6:1, not known as a performance engine. You'll be best to go conservative on the cam unless you plan on picking up the CR a bit. Meaning heads and pistons. You may have the 882 heads, they are 72 or 76cc.

 

Big Deuce, yeah the cam gear has that plastic sh*t on the teeth. The new chain and gear set I have is all steel.
Bobss396, my casting numbers are 14022601 (it kinda looks like 801 but I can find no reference to a 801 on the web.) The engine is out of a '86 Chevy C10 half ton.
J-jock, Thanks..if I do this I was thinking about carb cleaner to break down the varnish and carbon.

 

If the old lifters come out easily, you shouldn't have to do much to the lifter bores to make the new ones work good. You could give them a light wipe with carb cleaner and rag to move any residue. On engines like yours, I like to replace the valve seals, as well. You have the rockers all backed off for the lifter change, some air to the cylinder, and a valve spring compressor, and you'll have fresh seals too.

 

If your on a budget I recommend Competition Products in Oshkosh WI they sell a complete Elgin cam kit #E1005PK a clone of the 1970 300 hp 350 s.b.c. cam.
$129.00 Kit includes cam, lifters, valve springs, valve locks, valve seals, and assembly lube.
Installed this kit in a 350 that should soon go into the 48 Ford.

 

Nice choice! ^^^
Good torque, mid-range HP.

 

Better throw some compression in with that cam. I have same cam in #s matching '69 vette, 300hp 350 with 10.25:1 compression ratio.

 

As Algoma has said, there generally won't be varnish in the bores, because the lifters protrude above and below the bores. The varnish accumulates on the bottoms of the lifters that protrude below the bores because they are not wipe clean in use.

 

I've given lifter bores a wipe with solvent and scotch brite. The ones in my 350 came out a little hard, since I was chucking them I used vise grips and a little muscle. The bores looked fine. I let the shop that built the short block do the cleaning.

 

Most cam makers give a recommendation on minimum CR for any cam. Lunati recommended 9.5 minimum withy my cam, my actual CR is closer to 10.

 

Look at the lifter bores. If they are varnished or have any sort of buildup then clean 'em.

 

"Most cam makers give a recommendation on minimum CR for any cam. Lunati recommended 9.5 minimum withy my cam, my actual CR is closer to 10."

As best I can figure, I have the LG4 engine which says 9.5:1 Comp ratio. I'm sure with the miles on it that it has, its down a point or 2

 

LG4 is what's in my wifes '82 TransAm engine code H. 8.5:1 145hp. Switch to 58cc heads and might be close to the 9.5:1 ratio.

 

What Iam going to do is yank the cam and measure the lobes to be sure they're equal. If theres noticable wear or a wiped out lobe then I'll replace it. With the budget I'm on, if it looks good I'll just use it.
I mean, a 5500 pound car ain't gonna be a rip-snorter hehe.

 

Might be worth it to get ride of the stock smog cam and get better mileage and performance.

 

"What Iam going to do is yank the cam and measure the lobes to be sure they're equal."

You don't need to remove the camshaft to do this, you can measure the lobe lift by measuring pushrod rise (or movement at valve) using a dial gauge, as you manually rotate the engine over.

 

I did pull the cam. I was thinking about just measuring lift Beaner, but what if there was a lazy lifter or they had bled down...or is that even possible? Anyhow, the face of the lifter that rides on the cam looked ok to me on all of them. Meaning they all were worn the same.
And the cam itself seemed to my untrained eye to have no round lobes. Maybe the high points are worn but again, they are all equal. As soon as I can come up with specs on the factory cam I'll measure it.
Heres a couple of shots for your viewing pleasure....
And yeah, the lifter valley had a bunch of crap in it. So much that I'm ashamed to put up the pic lest y'all think I'm crazy for doing this.

 

just cut to the chase !......after 50k the plastic coated gears and chain are done !...(the plastic was for vibration / noise )and don't waste time tryin to figure out the "specs" on the cam !...its toast ! an the lifters are shot !....if you want it to run 1/2 way decent with out an overbore.......get a top end kit from Northern Auto Parts ......cam ( a basic r v grind ) lifters, and "umbrella seal's " (to help with the worn valve guides you no doubt have), ...and do the job !...it shouldn't take more than an afternoon.......DONE !

 

Do you know where every lifter was running? It is generally consided sure death to move a used lifter to run on a different cam lobe. If you clean a few of the lifters with 600 wet or dry and solvent, and then test each face against a lifter body the face should be slightly convex. There should be a few 0.001's of an inch clearance at the edges.

Conversely, two lifters placed face-to-face should rock, and also have even greater visible gap at the edges.
https://st.hotrod.com/uploads/sites...interpolation=lanczos-none&fit=around|596:398

 

I would say after looking at the condition of the existing lifters, best to deep 6 them. If there is that much sludge in the lifter valley, your for sure are not going to get it spic and span but will for sure break some of it loose to fall back into the oiling system. Remember you only have .002 oil clearance on bearings. I hate to mention it, but would be time and $ ahead to just tear it down, check taper on bore, fresh rings and clean that block GOOD.

 

Its all wiped out now.

 

That's not clean enough...

 

You're kidding, right?
Pete

 

You have a 54 that weighs 5500 pounds.....A 54 what?

 

Use an old shop vacuum to suck up any thing loose, otherwise it will block the oil pump screen or worse get dirt into the bearings.

 

If there is 170k on this engine, and the intake valley is this dirty, I can only imagine what the rod/main bearings look like. I try to offer suggestions as if I were speaking to my son, close friend, client etc. Correct me if I am out of line.

 

Deuce, I should have said that was before I wiped it out.