Grandfather's 68 SS Camaro.

[JRC99]

Originally Posted by Too Many Projects

You have every right to be frustrated and angry over this. You were looking for a car you could drive and remember your Grandfather in. Instead you got an all too common issue with a bad cam.

What part of Michigan are you in ?? If on the mainland, there are MANY people who would probably be willing to come help you remove the engine, pull the pan and bearing caps to see what it really needs. If you can get by with just replacing the bearings/oil pump and the cam and lifters, it would be a lower cost to do than plan a full rebuild. If I recall, wasn't this a fresh build ?

You don't have to do this alone. Having experienced help will take a big load off your chest and they can help you make informed decisions as to a new cam whatever parts it needs. Then you can take the time you need to pull them all together and have them help reassemble and break it in. I don't mean to be rude to Rally, but I would never take his advise on how to go about that. I'm happy for him that it works, but it doesn't seem to be the normal for the rest of us.

I appreciate that.

A couple things I want to make clear- this cam has been bad for a while, long before Pap passed away. I knew it most likely ate at least one lobe. I just wanted to fool myself into thinking I could 'send it' and unfortunately, those who do know better must break the bad news to me, admittedly to try to save me heart-ache in the long run (hence why I took a LONG time to type that rant, because I did not want to seem like I was bitter towards anyone simply offering good advice). The engine in it was actually built in the 80s, which is precisely why I personally take the blame for it eating the cam- it from what I remember was fine until we did an oil change a few years back and didn't know anything about flat tappets or zinc.
Actually, now that I think about it, the car's most used seasons were 2011 and 2014. I vaguely remember just the slightest, most vague lifter tick starting around 2014, (unless I'm thinking of the first couple weeks after the oil change going by a video I put on Youtube). Then the oil change in 2015. I know you're not supposed to go ages between oil changes so that didn't help but the car never had more than 100-200 miles put on it a year in the 19 years Pappaw had it (and most years it had exactly 0 put on). If I had to guess, the last change before 2015 was probably 2011. When did they scale down the zinc in the oils?

All the issues before that were timing and carb related- stuff dad and I don't really understand, and things Pappaw's body wouldn't let him spend hours on the car fixing anymore. But between I'd say 1987 and 2014 or 2015, the cam never made an odd sound. Until we did that oil change.

As far as help, that's another problem. Not to get too deep into the psychology of me (lol) but whenever someone helps me, the 'help' turns to me standing around watching while they do everything. I do not think that's fair to anyone and I need to learn how to jump in. I did not pull the intake- my good friend from South Carolina was up and he 'helped' do it. I'm currently talking to him, he's doing a rather good job of calming me down lol

Sure, I'll probably get to it eventually, I did always want to freshen up the block visually, it just sucks that it's more work than I fooled myself into thinking it was the other night.