cam bearing weep hole

[Tynian]

So as I stated before I got all my parts = block, heads, crank, cam ,pistons etc ....,back from the machinist. My buddy and I placed the block on my new engine stand :Sly

Put my rolling stool togther and started to prep the block for paint and botttom half assembly.

Had the engine turned upside down
Started looking down through the crank weep holes and 3 out of I think six of the weep holes are partially and some completely blocked by the cam bearings!!

So I get over it after awhile , fished out the old haynes manual and said to myself just another thing to do.
Turned to page 3-53, ah yes cambearings, It reads " Not the in the scope of the Home Mechanic!!!

*** ,are they lazy or something. So I can either take it all the way back to columbia tomorrow and see if the machinist will fix it, can fix it, has the parts to fix it , or I was hopeing that someone here can walk me through this proceedure

On another note I figured out the picture thing and have some pics for you guys .

Thanks Guys

 

[Mr_Roboto]

You need a special tool to install cam bearings. Improvised tools will usually ruin the bearings.

They will need to buy a new set of bearings and remove the old ones and get the new ones installed correctly. They will want to re-use the ones in there. I advise against it. The bearings will likely be distorted when they are taken out.

Installing cam bearings must be done slowly and carefully, double and triple checking the oil hole alignments on each one.

Consider yourself lucky that you caught it now, rather than when the cam bearings seized from lack of lube.

Frankly, if it was me, I would take the block to a master mechanic who has the right tools, and have them install new bearings. Your machinist already proved that they can't do the job right. Why let them screw it up twice?

 

[Tynian]

OK its still under warranty so my buddy and I will take it back to Napa and watch them replace the bearings , I should prolly call first to see if they have the bearings in stock soez we can awatch the replacement upon arrival.

There has to be some type of owl they can use to help line up the weep holes
I'll hold it for them

Thanks Mr. Roboto


Oh yea, another thing I noticed about the cam bearings, they seem to be 2 piece as I run my fingers around the surface of the bearing I feel the weep hole and groves at the top and a seam at the bottom
This seam, seams like to me, should feel or be a uniform transition between the two pieces, therefore being completely smooth.

What do you guys think?

 

[Mr_Roboto]

The way the hole is lined up is you CAREFULLY line them up before installing the bearing, then use the special tool to drive them in straight. There is no way to turn the bearing once it's being installed, they are a press (interference) fit.

The line that you feel is probably from the two halves of the installation tool damaging the bearing surface. Like I said, take it to a real mechanic.

 

[tonkadoctor]

I agree 1000%+ that Mr_Roboto is exactly right on his advice here. I don't have any ASE certification but I have rebuilt several hundred engines over the last 25+ years of tinkering both proffesionally and as a hobby.

 

[Mr_Roboto]

All ASE certification means is I sat and colored in circles till my butt went numb! Twice.

 

[h2odrx]

All ASE certification means is I sat and colored in circles till my butt went numb! Twice.

 

[tonkadoctor]

All ASE certification means is I sat and colored in circles till my butt went numb! Twice.

I know a guy that's an ASE certified transmission mechanic, saw him send a tranny out to be rebuilt one day so I asked him why he didn't do it....He told me he just took the test and passed it but didn't know how to rebuild a transmission. It prolly the biggest reason I never took one of the tests to get certified...that and the fact that I never had a problem getting a good paying job as a mechanic without it when I was working. Seems you can't get anywhere without a piece of paper these days and experience doesn't count for squat anymore.

 

[TLBREWER]

I know a guy that's an ASE certified transmission mechanic, saw him send a tranny out to be rebuilt one day so I asked him why he didn't do it....He told me he just took the test and passed it but didn't know how to rebuild a transmission. It prolly the biggest reason I never took one of the tests to get certified...that and the fact that I never had a problem getting a good paying job as a mechanic without it when I was working. Seems you can't get anywhere without a piece of paper these days and experience doesn't count for squat anymore.

I'll second that! And it's too bad too. There are a lot of talented people out there that don't get a job or the pay they deserve because they don't have some silly piece of paper...even though they are qualified.

I would suggest possibly taking the block to a shop that deals with diesels specifically. Not that it should matter for cam bearings, but at least they will have seen a 7.3 block before. I have the luxury of having a diesel machine shop near me. Even though I haven't used them much, the work they have done has been very good and reasonably priced. I felt somewhat reasured when I walked in the door with my bare heads and the guy asked me whether they were 6.9 or 7.3 heads with just a glance from the counter.

Tom

 

[Tynian]

Well I called this morning before I trudged off to napa with my block,
The shop forman stated that he would take a look at it, but the new bearings will be in tomorrow.

I did overhear him chewing out one of his guys that screwed up the bearing job, whilest I was on hold :Sly

So I'll have to wait till they come in. I did find time to do some more cleaning of most of the block threads with my tap and some w/d but not much else.

You see, the wife handed out some more chores for me since school started back for our daughter so I didn't get much in on it today.............................................................................................................................


Crap, I almost forgot, its getting late,
I did take everyones advice, in that, I called all the local guys I know of, that are master mechanics.

None of them would mess with a diesel, they had the tool, and I said I woold bring them my clean block, didn't matter, they acted like it was a piece off of a space ship :***:

Sos I finally dug what kind of tool I needed out of them and they said that I could get it from snap-on. Just so happens snap-on was delivering to them today and they said they would send him my way after thier turn.

Turns out the tool is $235 but I cant get it till next thursday
Oh well , back to napa

Thanks guys.

 

[Diesel JD]

You didn't want those guys to touch your block anyway, if they act like they don't know what to do with a diesel.....they probably don't. Hopefully the machine shop will get it right this time...would scare me...but you may be down to up crap creek with no paddle.

 

[tonkadoctor]

I must commend you on finding the cam bearing screw up. I have a feeling the shop foreman may personnaly oversee the job or even do it himself.

I know when I was running a 10 bay truck shop that handeled 40 of our own trucks as well as outside customers I did things like that and if the customer was there I dropped what I was doing and did it myself to their satisfaction while they watched, thankfully it didn't happen often and I had some truely talented truck mechanics that tried to do things right the first time (helps when the mechanics are on commission and if they really did screw up they're working for free...makes a pretty good incentive and weeds out poor mechanics pretty quickly)

 

[Tynian]

All went smooth, you were right Tonka, the shop foreman replaced the bearings himself, as I watched.

So I got my block back at my shop and I'm heading over to my buddies house now to see if he wants to help me place it on the stand.

Also need to get my flouresents hung up and powered up.


Chat at you later guys, thanks for all your in-put.

 

[sle2115]

All went smooth, you were right Tonka, the shop foreman replaced the bearings himself, as I watched.

So I got my block back at my shop and I'm heading over to my buddies house now to see if he wants to help me place it on the stand.

Also need to get my flouresents hung up and powered up.


Chat at you later guys, thanks for all your in-put.

Did you have a chance to feel for the ridge? Generally, if you have a ridge, the bearing tool was canted. Our tools were all one piece and bolted to the end of a driver assembly. It really isn't that hard to do them correctly, the hole in the cam bearings is generally about twice the size of the hole in the block.

And by the way, I have about 20 years experience and learned from what I consider to be a very good machinist. I walked into an engine machine shop expected to run the front end (parts, customer service etc.) and my boss wouldn't let me out of the shop once he found I could make him money. I generally can watch how something is done once then do it to perfection and the only thing I had to learn was how to use the new tools, carbide seat cutters etc. At any rate, I was ASE master certified and added all aspects of the machinist trades to that pile of certifications, did it mean anything, absolutely, meant I could take a test!!! I have made a pretty good living at it and my auto mechanic/parts/machinist experience led me to my current job, teaching others and while I still keep the ASE certifications current that the college wants/expects, I don't do much with those that are non-essential to staying employed...

I have to agree with everyone else though, those that can't cut it generally don't stay employed long. I have seen several guys come through the shop I worked at, Oak's Machine in Logan, Ohio that had worked in machine shops for twice as long as I had, most didn't last a month before totally trashing something and being fired. You have to pay attention to every detail, especially things like lining up the cam bearing with the oil galley holes, that is not optional. Hope it all works out for you and sounds like you prolly got the right guy doing the fixing on them.

Good luck, keep us posted,
Scott

 

[tonkadoctor]

All went smooth, you were right Tonka, the shop foreman replaced the bearings himself, as I watched.

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So I got my block back at my shop and I'm heading over to my buddies house now to see if he wants to help me place it on the stand.

Also need to get my flouresents hung up and powered up.


Chat at you later guys, thanks for all your in-put.

So glad to hear that it went that way, it tells me the shop stands behind their work and wants your business. That's a foreman thats worth his salt and I'd definatly let that shop handle something again in the future especially if he was still there.