'78 internally oiled camshaft?

[chaseincats]

Hey gang,

On a '78 I'm told the cam is 'internally oiled' (instead of using the oil spray bar).  What does that mean and are there holes somewhere on the cam that spray oil while rotating or something?  I looked but didn't see any...

 

-chase

[SteveJ]

6 hours ago, chaseincats said:

Hey gang,

On a '78 I'm told the cam is 'internally oiled' (instead of using the oil spray bar).  What does that mean and are there holes somewhere on the cam that spray oil while rotating or something?  I looked but didn't see any...

 

-chase

Yes there are holes in the lobes just before the lobes make contact with the rockers. If your head doesn't have a spray bar, and the cam isn't internally oiled, you would have toasted your cam already due to the lack of lubrication.

[Captain Obvious]

Speaking of such things... I'm looking for one of the newer design spray bars. Any of you guys who went to internally oiled cams have one laying around they don't need anymore?

The later design that looks like this:

[chaseincats]

8 hours ago, SteveJ said:

Yes there are holes in the lobes just before the lobes make contact with the rockers. If your head doesn't have a spray bar, and the cam isn't internally oiled, you would have toasted your cam already due to the lack of lubrication.

Gotcha and to make sure the hole is spraying properly I could just use a bent out paperclip and move it around in there, correct?

[SteveJ]

Actually, if you take the car out of gear (assuming it's a manual), connect a remote starter with decent sized wires (not the cheap Harbor Freight version) to the solenoid. (Here's an example of one:https://www.amazon.com/INNOVA-3630-Remote-Starter-Switch/dp/B000EVU8MK.) Take off the valve cover and crank the engine with the remote starter while looking to see if the oil is coming out of the holes. If there isn't enough oil coming through, you'll be able to tell by the grooves in the cam lobes. 😬

[siteunseen]

Steve types faster than me so this is another option...

I would think you could pull the coil wire off, remove the spark plugs and get someone to crank it over while you observe the cam's oiling???

I used a drill on low speed with a rod down the distributor's hole when I put an N42 head that was converted over to a oilier cam on my 2.8 motor after a rebuild while it was on an engine stand.

 

[chaseincats]

Thanks for all the info!

This whole thing spanned from me looking at my cam and seeing small lines on all the lobes.  They are small enough that you can't catch your nail on it and wasn't sure if it was damage or 45 years of wear.

I made a video of my cam with the valve cover off here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MYNc7lrVUWk

What do you guys think?

[siteunseen]

Looks like mine. I think you are okay if your fingernail doesn't catch on the marks/lines.

If you are going to clean the lobes I would suggest a green Scotch-Brite pad instead of steel wool. Steel wool will kind of disintegrate after use and leave steel wool fibers. Then you need Woolite.

 

[chaseincats]

2 hours ago, siteunseen said:

Looks like mine. I think you are okay if your fingernail doesn't catch on the marks/lines.

If you are going to clean the lobes I would suggest a green Scotch-Brite pad instead of steel wool. Steel wool will kind of disintegrate after use and leave steel wool fibers. Then you need Woolite.

 

gotcha

As a side note, there is some old/crunchy looking oil bits in there, should I try to pick those out or is that also, just an age thing?

[siteunseen]

I'd try and get that out, that could clog up something? Maybe an air gun off a compressor would blow them out. It's possibly old pieces of gaskets, maybe the valve cover gasket? Don't blow air down, try to shoot it to the driver's side away from the valves and rockers.

Good luck!