New cam for the Tempest: Finishing up
With my cam bearing tool made, I just had to put it to work. Below I am using it to remove one of the old bearings.
It worked really well, but I was worried about dropping a nut or washer down inside the engine. I didn’t replace the rear-most cam bearing, it was impossible to get to. But it looked pretty good, the bearings got worse toward the front of the car (farther from the oil pump). Next was the reassembly, I soaked the lifters in some oil and worked them with a pushrod to get some oil inside.
Below the cam and lifters are in, new timing chain (if you have the opportunity, always replace the timing chain and/or oil pump on a pontiac motor), new pushrods and new roller tip rockers (some of the pivots were galled on the old ones).
It runs great: no more ticking lifters and I think the oil pressure has gone up a bit. In spite of it being rather mild performance cam (mellings mtp-1, 278 duration and .422″ lift on the intake and 288 duration and .444″ lift on the exhaust), the gas mileage doesn’t seem to have decreased (16-17 mpg on my commute to work).
