TIII cam bores and honing

[iTurbo]

Can the cam bores on a TIII be honed? I have a head here that there is some scuffing on the bores. I called a machine shop in Sturgis to see if they could do it and they are unsure unless they see the head. Is this even possible on a line hone? It doesn't seem like a small brake cylinder hone would work very well and keeping everything dead nuts straight.

[86Shelby]

There's a machine shop in Topeka KS that has the repair procedure. He hones out the bores and installs cam bearing shells from some other engine in it; that's if the scoring is bad enough. He did a little work on mine a few years back to get them to a good useable point without installing bearings. Heck if I can remember the shop's name though and I think the business card went in the trash with the move last month. It's the same guy that Lonewolf used years ago, I'm not sure if they are still using the guy or not. I'm sorry I have just enough info to gather interest but not the small piece of info you need.

[wowzer]

Can the cam bores on a TIII be honed? I have a head here that there is some scuffing on the bores. I called a machine shop in Sturgis to see if they could do it and they are unsure unless they see the head. Is this even possible on a line hone? It doesn't seem like a small brake cylinder hone would work very well and keeping everything dead nuts straight.

jeremy - i just dropped my 420a (dohc off an eclipse) head off at johnson machine in rapid city to have them line bore my cam journals. i bought some aftermarket cams and when i installed them in the head it would not allow the cams to move! plastigauge showed a couple of the caps at .001 or less. it should be done tomorrow. i'll let you know cost and any problems they ran into. i'll ask them also what they would have done if the gap would have been overspec clearance, (i.e. bearings installed?). who did you call in sturgis?

[turbovanman²]

If the cams turn freely, I wouln't touch them unless you're going to have them repaired. The clearance is very small. I know years ago, one of my really really bad heads was repaired, bolt the sucker up and the cams wouldn't turn. I know I should have take the head off and had them done but all I did was use a drill to turn the cams, lots of oil and self machined them. Never had an issue with scoring, binding etc. There is so much oil there that they get tons of oil while they run.

[iTurbo]

jeremy - i just dropped my 420a (dohc off an eclipse) head off at johnson machine in rapid city to have them line bore my cam journals. i bought some aftermarket cams and when i installed them in the head it would not allow the cams to move! plastigauge showed a couple of the caps at .001 or less. it should be done tomorrow. i'll let you know cost and any problems they ran into. i'll ask them also what they would have done if the gap would have been overspec clearance, (i.e. bearings installed?). who did you call in sturgis?

For sure let me know! The TIII head doesn't have cam caps at all and the cams just slide in from the front.

I've been using RPM Machine in Sturgis. They just did a main line bore/hone on a TIII block I have to make sure the ARP main studs fit. The owner and his son seemed to know what they were doing and did the work pretty quickly. Unfortunately there is only one machine shop here in Gillette and they are usually backed up and don't have the machine to do line honing.

[wowzer]

sorry jeremy - i forgot the tiii head doesn't use cam caps. anyhow, imagine my surprise today when i picked up the head and the machinest said "oh, we don't have a machine to do that small of a line bore, we would have to send it off. we just honed and polished the caps." when i asked him what clearance they ended up with he didn't know.... so, the cams turn freely so i'm going to just move on with it like it is ($100 later). i've use RPM before. rebuilt a 350 chevy engine for me a number of years ago. there was a shop in belle fourche that closed a couple years ago also unfortunately. owner was a SAM graduate and rebuilt my friends 350 in his 67 camaro. wish i could have been helpful.

mt