Allright. This beautifull buick came to my garage to get some help. Owner wants hotter cam, so he get one grinded. During cam change, hi gets idea to put new cam bearings....bad idea! Now, as far as i know, atleast two or three front ones are way too tight. You can tap cam about 1/8 in and its totally locked. Do we have wrong bearings, or is this common thing in nailheads? I have thinking either gring notches in old cam and ream the bearings, or use ream tool, which i have... Or should i just yank the block out and take it to machine shop?
Looking at Rock Auto it looks like most 59/66 Nailheads use the same bearings SEALED POWER 1269M Vintage (Size: Standard MAHLE / CLEVITE SH361S Full Set (Size: Standard) BUICK ELECTRA 1959-1966 BUICK ESTATE WAGON 1959-1964 BUICK INVICTA 1959-1963 BUICK LESABRE 1959-1966 BUICK RIVIERA 1963-1966 BUICK SKYLARK 1966 BUICK SPECIAL 1966 BUICK SPORTWAGON 1966 BUICK WILDCAT 1962-1966 You did get them in the right positions? If you used one of the expander cam bearing drivers like I have it's hard to get the front bearings in straight and not bugger them up. I usually drive the front two in from the back side of the web and drive the others in from the front side.
I first encountered this back in early 70's on a Gran Sport that a friend was having the engine hot rodded in the shop of another friend of mine. And yes, a line bore is the proper way to finish the cam bearing bores in a nailhead.
Use the old camshaft and make a reamer out of it. Cut diagonal grooves in it and ream the bearings yourself. I did it in my 364. I used a shop vac as i was reaming to keep the shavings from dropping into the oil pan. Very slow and you must have tons of patients as this took me several hours.
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