350 bored .060 over... XE268 cam, I didn't put a CAM BUTTON IN!!!
 

Is this a major issue?

I didn't know I possibly needed one until I had the entire long block assembled.

I haven't fired it up yet, and would like to know beforehand... I don't want to trash 1200 dollars worth of parts and 100 hours of work and research by forgetting tiny little part that would've only taken a few minutes to put in.

If you have a flat tappet cam, you don't need a cam button.

If you have a roller cam, you need one to keep the cam from walking.

The design of a flat tappet cam causes the camshaft to thrust to the rear of the block by itself.

Qt: I don't want to trash 1200 dollars worth of parts and 100 hours of work and research by forgetting tiny little part that would've only taken a few minutes to put in.

YES IT DOES have to be installed if it says it must.
How can you build a motor and not know this.
It's in the instructions on the cam.
Make sure you have a good timing chain cover, not a cheap chrome one. Don't forget to change the distributor gear. :thumbup:

The instructions didn't say anything about it, but several people asked me if I put one in when I told them about the build, so I started to worry about it.

And yeah, I bought a cheap chrome cover, then read bad things about it, so I scrapped the thing and bought a nice one.

It IS a flat tappet cam, and the instructions didn't mention anything about it, so I'm ok?

A flat tappet camshaft does not have to have a cam button on a small chevy.

thank you for your help guys

i'll take NAIRB's word for it though, although I haven't posted much in the past 8 months or so I've been here, I've seen him solve alot of problems and make alot of really good suggestions, he seems to know what he's doing.

i really appreciate the help, i was worried about it.

You do not need a cam button if it is not a roller cam. You are fine. Enjoy your motor. A little bit of paranoia is good when you build an engine, it helps you do things right. But once you got it done have confidence in it and enjoy it. If you stay paranoid that something may always be wrong then it takes all the fun out of things.

The reason why you don't need one is because the lobes on a flat tappet cam are tapered. The lifters have a slight conical shape on them, and this causes the lifter to rotate, it also creates a rearward thrust on the cam when it is running.

You can put a cam button on any hydraulic or solid lifter cam if you wish, but it's not necessary to do so. A roller cam, however is a different story because the lobes are not tapered, and of course, a roller cam will not tolerate any walking back and forth as roller lifters don't do well skidding accross the lobe sideways.

Thank you for your help.

I appreciate that you actually gave me a reason why and didn't just reply yes or no.

That's what I'm here for... To learn.

cam button
 

SBC with Flat tappet hydraulic or solid lifter does not need a cam button. The camshaft lobes have a very slight side taper ground into them, this causes the flat tappet lifters to spin in their bores reducing wear and also causes a rearward thrust. P.S. I just disassembled a High dollar SBF with roller cam that someone forgot to put the cam gear bolt in. It evidently had ran for about 2 minutes before catastrophic engine failure. This destroyed a set of new edelbrock heads etc. My friend bought the motor for $400.00 for the block. I don't know who assembled the engine but gee, I think a guy would notice something like that.

This thread is 3 years old.

NICE CATCH!!!!!!!!!!

still learnin
 

these post maybe old but were still learnin the good stuff from before our time on this thread thanks