WTB: Stock LT1 cam

[Pranav]

Got the 96+ motor, anyone in Houston have one, or likewise anyone have one that looks good that they're willing to ship out today?

call me directly, 281 414 1482

[BryanL]

I can't help you but curious-did you just find out you don't have a stock cam in the car?

[Pranav]

Yes, and by "non-stock" I mean my cam decided to turn into a low emissions version by wiping out a cam lobe. Had a lifter pop out and rotate; no clue how long I've been running it like that but cam is toast.

[Pranav]

Good news is outside of the two lifters impacted by the toasted lobe (from when the retainer kicked out), all the others looked fantastic. Gonna pull the cam out and hope I don't uncover anything more sinister.

I have a '93 cam in my possession, hoping my cousin at the machine shop can drill out the needed .5 x 1.0625 hole needed to work with my vented opti, then I'm good to go!

If anyone has a 95+ cam in their possession, please help me out!

[Pranav]

Cam is out, every lobe looked great and new-ish except for the one I wiped out. Here's to hoping the metal shavings were mostly picked up by the filter.

What's the best I can do about the shavings that may still be left while I have the intake, timing cover, and valve covers off? There are no shavings in the intake valley, don't think I say any come thru the oil drain, haven't cut open filter yet.

[Pranav]

Here's what I've been working with:

1206
1207

Anyone have any issues with their lifter retainers? Is this something I need to look into upgrading or could mine have just been compromised by a previous incident? When re-gasketing the motor prior to first install in the car, pieces of a broken lifter were found in the pan. Not sure if that happened on the same cylinder or not and if the retainer had already been bent and re-used and bent back manually after that incident. I can definitely say I've already mis-shifted a couple of times during the past two track days since I've been running the motor, dang 3-4 gate is a bitch...

Per the rules:
Any valve springs, spring seats, retainers, keepers, shims, and locks may be used provided they are
the same metal as OEM and are mounted to the OEM valves. Lash caps may only be used if present on the
OEM setup.

LMK y'alls thoughts, I'm just throwing stock stuff back in this weekend. I've also heard of people taking 2 spider retainers and bolting them in a sandwich for added stiffness...

[Al Fernandez]

Not heard of issues with the LT1 valve hardware other than springs...unless you continually over-rev by going from, say, 3rd to 2nd

[Casey_SS]

Sounds like just a series of unfortunate shifts. There isn't really a common failure point in the LT1 valve train for CMC power / rpm levels that everyone needs to upgrade. You'll obviously want to replace the spider retainer with a new one and probably the dogbones as well. Just freshen it up with OEM or equivalent parts and you should be good to go.

As long as the geometry is reasonably close (i.e. spring installed height, pushrod length, rocker ratio, and valve lash) and the parts themselves aren't 20 years old, valvetrain issues are pretty rare on LT1s if you stay under ~6000 rpm. Above that, everything needs to be a lot stiffer to survive very long. Not that you would in CMC, but stay away from aluminum rockers - they tend to break on road race motors. A lot.