65 396 cam question
 

I just pulled the cam out of a 65 396 that I'm building. The rear cam bearing has a groove like it's supposed to, but the cam was just a standard appearing 67+ BBC cam. The cam does need the groove right?

I say the Cam needs to be grooved or your oil pressure will be low... Most cams today won't have the groove in them so they need to be matched to the bearing.

This may help...
http://garage.grumpysperformance.com...engines.10360/

Dave
67 Nova Boy

Thanks Dave. I already read that. They always have a lot of good info over there. I guess I was just double checking. I've seen quite a bit of comments that said you only needed one or the other. I wasn't buying it...
I suspect this is why the motor was originally pulled. It's been sitting in the back of a friend's father's garage for the last 20 years while he's been on "vacation." It probably had low pressure from when they first started it after it was rebuilt. It doesn't have that many miles on it. You can still see the honing cross hatching.
I'm going to make sure the cam I replace it with gets the groove. It should be a pretty decent power plant for my 69 when I'm done. It's a decked and bored .060" 396 (408ci). It has it's original 206 heads that I'll do some work to. Couldn't beat it for $300 with a NAPA 5/8 ton engine stand.

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Dave,

Hard to pass up that deal! Good stand as well...My brother has a 66 "396" and had to groove the cam but didn't know about the Zinc being removed and wiped out 3 cams. {Flat tappet} Good luck with the "396 "or "408"

If the bearing is grooved then do the cam.

Dave
67 Nova Boy

Dave, which Distributor are you planning to run?
As memory serves me,make sure you use a '65-'66
Big Block Dist. With the blocked off lower groove.
With out that I believe your oil will by-pass the upper half
of the motor and there will be little if any oil to the lifters.
Just a hard lesson to forget.
Joe

Great value in that deal..I have one question..why are there 2 vacuum 'gizmos' on that Holley??

-wilma

speed governor- dump truck carb?

:eek2:

Sure looks that way to me.....

Sorry for the delay in getting back... After a little more research I decided I will definitely need to use a grooved cam if I run this block. The cam I removed has what I measured to be a ~.462/.488 lift cam.
Joe, Thanks for the heads up on the distributor. I had no idea about that. Luckily I have a 65 Chevelle dizzy in the garage. I'll have to check it out and make sure it's up to snuff to run again after probably 40 years.
That Holley was just something laying on top of the motor that got thrown in with the deal. It's a actually a production line 69 carb. I'd love to know exactly what it came off of. Probably a truck/dump truck like you guys mentioned.
I'm tempted to pull the pistons and throw them in a 72 408 short block that I was running last year. That block has flat tops. It might be a smarter way to do it so I don't have to mess with the cam, dizzy and oil filter conversion. I'll have to think about that for a few. Any input either way?

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That is a Ford GOV carb ... as mentioned from a truck or some sort of industrial engine ... TAZ