Picked up an 06 longblock, with 31K miles. Started cam swap and #3 camshaft bearing fell to oil pan, and cam journal is blackened. The entire engine is super clean, what oil is left looks to be in very good condition with no metal in it. What do I do now?

 

replace the cam bearing and cam (if using the black journal cam) and keep rollin.

 

Thats what I was thinking, but wanted some reassurance. The black journal cam, is the stock cam its going in the scrap pile.

 

no more opinions about this?

 

Well i just experienced the same issue. i have an 04/05 iron block 6.0. i was replacing the cam and #3 also came out on me. my engine has around 70K on it.. my bearing was pretty chewed up on the inside of it. Took it to a machinist with a new set and had him install a new one. He pressed it in and noted that it went in tighter than most bearing he installs. so we slide a cam in there and it would barely spin, which means that the bearing had to be scraped down. they have a bearing scraper tool but it can only be used with the engine apart so it was suggested that an old cam be used to clearance. by scoring the journal you can put the cam in and scrap the bearing down. using a vacum and some care you can remove most of the shaving.

Basically what we determined is that from the factory the cam bearings were not checked, mine had to be too tight and my repeated abuse wasn't good for the tight bearing fit.

 

so you installed the new bearing with no machine work to the block?

 

no machine work. the new cam bearing went in tight. so tight the cam would not spin free which means the journal from the factory did not have the proper clearance. we had to use an old cam to clearance the new bearing.

 

Sweet, thanks for the information. Im going to try just some bearings.