Putting my 77 440 back together - just replacing normal wear items on a good running engine. The lifters were showing wear, so I decided to install a new Summit cam & lifters. Was about to install the cam tonight, but saw what looked like bearing material flaking off of the three center cam bearings. Most of the flaking is near the oil passage, but not always:
1977_440_Cam_Bearings by clair_davis, on Flickr
1977_440_Cam_Bearings by clair_davis, on Flickr

So what causes this, and how long does an engine run with this going on? I bought the engine installed in the 77 NY'er it started life with, and the engine seemed to run fine. Are pieces of bearing material going to keep flaking off, or is it a localized thing? Why only the three middle bearings? I've never seen anything like this before...

Thanks,

Clair