I had posted in the truck section about my quest for a new cam for towing, on my 96 5.9L gas motor. I had a head issue was addressing a burnt valve issue and figured why not. I have a UTA cam on order and while I was waiting,dug deeper to get the old cam out.

Very bad day after pulling the cam. Found two bearings that are shot. Cant say I have ever seen this sort of wear, but I did find others with similar.

I have never done came bearing work, but up to the challenge. I cant figure out how to get them out in vehicle though. I am assuming the rear bearing cant be done without engine removal but the others maybe can be?

I am not saying it can't be done but it would be very difficult. You would be time well spent to pull the engine then pull the oil pan to get the bearings after you knock them out. then install new bearings.

Yeah, slowly coming to that realization. PITA as this truck barely fits in my garage. Now I got to figure out how to hoist the motor out how it sits.

Anyone familiar with the topic of a tight cam after bearing install? I have seen that come up a few times when searching cam bearings. Wondering if it was more with a certain brand then others.

I know it can be done on b-rb eng. Once changed out the front 3 bearings , eng in car.

Get the block out and let someone put them in with the right tool. Tight bearings are from shoddy installation. It will be cheaper than buying the tool and learning how to use it.

So much for religious Mobil1 oil changes. I owned this truck since day 1.

Only good news with removing this engine is there is a mile of room in the engine bay to pull out.

Boy, those don't look like wear problems, look like a ham-handed cam install.....

Joe

I've changed the bearings in chassis more than once and on more than one type of motor. As mentioned the rear bearing is the most challenging. I've been able to "roll them out using the oiling hole. Reinstalling normally requires the rear bearing mandrel to be shortened or a spacer machined the prevent it from going too deep and knocking the cam plug out.

Well, then it was the factory. I do see others with the same weird marks.
https://dodgeforum.com/forum/2nd-gen-ram-tech/319592-removing-cam-bearing.html

I am wondering if this could be related to my burnt exhaust valve issue. I haven't removed the valve yet (got new casting heads from Jegs), but it looks like a chunk of the back side of the valve or seat is gone. Maybe this got thrown through the engine?

The builder I used for my 383 is swamped with work for about 8 weeks. I may attempt to do this myself and inspect all other bearing surfaces as well.

Interesting, your link shows almost identical damage to those bearings.

Puzzling type of damage.....

Joe

I did them, in car once. I bought the tool because pulling the engine wasn't an option at the time and it had to be done.

For the rear bearing I just pulled the tranny loose and knocked it out installed the new one and slid it back into place.

Where there is a will there is a way.

I did have to pull the radiator but not the grill to get the room I needed for the tool.

I paid $300 for the tool but they are a lot cheaper now.

The tool I bought looked like this but I bought it from NAPA

https://www.summitracing.com/parts/lil-18000

When installing the cam bearing on a many Mopar V8 engines there are oiling holes in the upper portion of the bearing that are not visible when looking at the installed bearing from the top of the engine.
When you knock the bearing out you will see the extra holes. Make sure you install the new bearing with the holes correctly lined up.


And I agree that damage looks like a defective bearing or installation. Not wear.

Sure as hell does look the same. I’m thinking it’s damage caused during installation of the BEARINGS themselves, not the cam.

As all the thoughts in my mind settle down, I think I will do it this way:

- Once the snow goes away and temps get warmer, I will drag the truck outside to pull the engine. No room to maneuver with this truck in my garage. I am only a starter, bellhousing and flexplate away at this point.
- In the meantime I will drop the pan and see what the bottom end looks like. I am curious if the main bearings show same issue, given they are oiled the same.
- If bottom end is shot, I will send to machine shop.
- If bottom end is ok, then I will do the cam bearings myself and rent a tool.

Already ordered a Mopar high volume oil pump as if I am in there, might as well.

I would comment though that few stock engines need a high volume oil pump. Just more parasitic horsepower loss and more wear on the cam gear.

My usage for this truck isnt easy. It doesnt get used much (93K miles since I bough it new), but I tow my near 9000lb travel trailer and a 24' enclosed car trailer with whatever fits inside. So it is working pretty hard most times in 3rd gear (3.92 gears). I was wondering if oiling was any contributing factor.

If any towing trip did it, it was our cross country Grand Tetons and Yellowstone trip. My truck was sucking wind up the Rockies. And I think I already had my burnt exhaust valve at that time, just not occurring as often.

The number one improvement I can say should be done to small blocks are the oil holes behind the filter in the adapter plate.

340/360 LA & 5.9 Magnums are supposed to have 6 to 8 holes for oil to pass from the block to the filter. 318 LA & 5.2 Magnums usually have 4 holes and that is too few.

First thing I do is add more holes or replace the 4 hole plate with a 6/8 hole plate.

Oil is your life blood for an engine and mopar gave the 318's a clogged artery.

I know you said yours was a 5.9 but look at that filter plate. More holes won't hurt a bit.

I have seen this type of damage on bearings before. It appears that the bearing material has de-laminated. In all the cases I have seen, it does not appear to hurt anything.

I have seen that on a rod bearing on an 24 liter industrial engine. Probably 25% of the bearing was gone. Thought the crank would have been damaged, worn down, or something. Nope. Crank was checked out and polished at the machine shop. Crankshaft was good to go. It was like the bearing was slowly coming apart in microscopic pieces. Oil sampling had saved this particular engine from an eventual failure.

Looks like the installer turned that bearing after it was installed to line up the oil holes. The proper way to do this is to remove the bearing and re-install it but it looks like they just turned the pressure up and forced the bearings to turn in the bores.

I have been here before, 360 magnum, over 200,000 mikes, ran perfect, cam bearings all looked like that. I noticed they beat out of the block very hard, the new ones went in like any normal engine. The cam turned with my fingers with new bearings. I think it was caused by stress/fatigue/ dirt/burrs on original install. The rod bearings were also down to copper. The oil passages in the block were already bigger than old small blocks, other than 1 behind the oil filter. I don't think your oil or towing was the issue, just fatigued at install, from what I could see.