Greetings MiGorda,
In subsequent posts to this one you are still advocating just installing a new,
upgraded cam into this motor as-is due to limited finances.
You've also had several members of this forum (with a sum total of well over a
hundred man-years of real-world engine experience) tell you that this is a bad idea.
What that cam lobe ground off of the bottom of your lifter is not corn starch.
It isn't coffee grounds. And it isn't soft babbit metal. It's *hardened* steel.
And your oil filter doesn't stop it all. Especially if it clogs up, and the bypass
opens up as a last-ditch effort to prevent guaranteed failure due to loss of oil
pressure. So now the *hardened* bits are pumped through all the soft main, rod,
and camshaft bearings. These bearings feature 'embed-ability', so that a stray bit
of debris here or there doesn't automatically lead to a damaged crank or cam
machined bearing surface.
But the amount of debris from that damaged lifter is way beyond what those bearings
were intended to accommodate. And we're not being ultra-fussy or absolutists about
this. And nobody here wants to cheer you on to install a Superman Cam, only to have
the low oil pressure from all the new excess clearances in your bearings end up stranding
you a long way from home with a seized engine. Or having Mr. Rodney install a new
window in the side of your block as he unceremoniously departs.
If you have some sort of emotional attachment to *this* engine, it can be fixed, but
it will take a complete disassembly, heroic cleaning effort, and rebuild to do so.
Anything less is just wishful thinking. At this point, if I were you I'd take my 'new camshaft budget',
and instead use it to swap in a quiet running used engine. (Best case is to see/hear a used
engine run before buying. Check for stray noises, low oil pressure, radiator huffing at idle,
etc.)
If the engine doesn't run but can be cranked over, then pull the plugs, observe the color,
signs of excess oil consumption, steam-cleaned in 1 cylinder, etc. Then run a compression
test, and if everything checks out then pull out the cash & make the deal.
The least-confidence scenario is to buy an engine that isn't running and there's no starter
to turn it over with. Pull the plugs & look carefully. With the plugs out, can you turn the
engine over with a breaker bar? Now it's more of a gamble, for we can't be sure if there
isn't a latent valvetrain problem that has yet to show up on the plugs?
But I digress. Buying an entire ugly but solid vehicle for short money just for the engine
is something that most of us in here have done when stuck in a similar snafu, because this
allows us to get a better feel for the donor motor...rather than buying a motor that's
sitting on the floor on blind faith with unknown history other than the seller's sales patter.
****
All of the above is just food for thought. A new cam in an old engine that's contaminated
with tiny hardened metal shrapnel is about as appealing as digging into a fine steak where
ground up glass was substitued for sea salt. Not recommended in either case.
Believe us when we all say that we would tell our best friends the same exact advice.
BTW, thanks for sharing that clear photo of the hole in the bottom of the lifter - that helped
a lot to get a better feel for the extent of the failure. Best of luck getting your wounded
vehicle back on the road. As fellow GMT400 owners, we're rootin' for ya!
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