[PbFut]

A follow up to the story. The cam was mangled pretty good. It was going south in a hurry. There were 3 for sure on their way out as 3 lifters had to be dropped out the bottom. I used plenty of comp cam assembly oil/lube but it still failed. My mistake was using the 20 minute old lifters from the original install of the Comp Cam that was too aggressive for the bottom end compression. I phone ordered the second cam from Comp. Salesman asked if I wanted lifters. Mistakenly I said no as mine were only 20 minutes old. The salesman at that point should have stopped me and told me what a dumb move that was. So for the third Cam, I went to Howards and ponied up for a retro roller attempting to avoind the flat tappet break in issue. So far so good. About 3 hours on the motor with the new cam. No issues at this time. Quiet, smooth, ok power, plenty oil pressure. The bottom end has unknown miles so I was not keenly concerned about damage from the cam dust. I know many of you will cringe at that move. As I disassembled I paid close attention to the appearance of the oil. Everything in the stream after the filter was exceptionally clean vs. the gray stuff in the pan. My thought, right or wrong, is that the oil under pressure to the crank was clean enough via the wix filter not to have damaged anything to the point of excessive on the unknown mile bottom end. I drained the oil and ran three washes of diesel fuel through the oil system using a pump primer and changing the filter each time. The final cycle came out looking as clean as it went in Honestly the first cycle was not too bad looking I then cycled a jug of break in oil to push out the fuel in the gallies. Drained the flush oil. Removed the old cam and lifters. Push rods were already out before the cleaning. Bearings looked the same as when it all started. This was not a rebuild. Just cam and head swap so there is unknown miles on cam bearings and bottom end. Also why I did not feel a need to fully disassemble after cam failure. 3 lifters were mushroomed and had to drop out the bottom. The new Roller cam required me to set up a button. I used the clay method. I had some clay bar sitting around. Worked very well. It is sticky enough to hold the button when you remove the cover. Milling a little at a time until I had .007 gap between the timing cover fully torqued and the button. Measured with the clay holding the button off the cover removed with a feeler. There is 3 hours on the 3rd cam at this point. The run in oil change was completed and is pristine in appearance. I am hopeful this shade tree procedure will work out in my favor. The truck is not driven that much. Just around town. If I get 10K out of this procedure it will be 2 or 3 years.