[BlackRat]

Putting my 454 together and everything has been going good until I get the cam installed. I lubed everything with the supplied comp cams lube as well as used a mixture of oil and stp treatment on the bearings and journals. Cam is very hard to get started turning but once I get it started it is smooth. If I stop it is hard to start turning again. Any Ideas why this maybe. A lot of lube possibly causing it to stick?

Thanks
Wade

[BOBCRMAN@aol.com]

Probably have a tight spot on a cam bearing. A common problem.

[BlackRat]

Thanks. Just curious did you reply to my post at the Club Hot Rod forum suggesting scotch brite on the bearing? If not sorry. If so I did follow your suggestion and it did help although scares the heck out of me to be abrasive material on a bearing surface. As I stated in the post it is still a little tight but the bearing did mic to same spec as the others and does seem to be square in the hole. This might be a really dumb question but since it is turning smoother can this be tolerated and allowed to wear itself in or is it something that I am asking for trouble with?

Thanks
Wade

[BOBCRMAN@aol.com]

Usually it causes no problems. I try not to use scotchbrite on bearings, I use a bearing knife. If I have a real super fussy customer I will use fine scotchbrite pad to "Hollywood" the bearing. Usually what happens is the bearing driver leaves a very small amount of bearing displaced at the very edge. A knife leaves the removed spot shiny while the rest of the bearing is dull.

[machine shop tom]

Another thought is that the cam bearing bores may be slightly out of line. This can make the cam turn stiff, but isn't really a problem.