264 cam replacement

**bakersfour** · 01-17-2008, 05:11 PM

I have a 55 special which I recently purchaced. The engine had been rebuilt 10 years ago.

The rebuilder boosted the oil pressure too high , which put too much back pressure on cam gear. The cam gear and dist. gear were destroyed. I am replacing cam, lifters, pushrodsand oil pump spring. The motor only has 2000 miles on the rebuild. The car has been sitting in garage for the last 10 years. I pulled the intake, valley cover , valve covers, and oil pan and everything looks real clean. Looks like gear shavings went into oil pan. I am fairly new to getting this far into an engine. Can someone give me a little advice on getting this together and running. thanks!

**shoprat** · 01-17-2008, 07:29 PM

While I am not familiar enough with the nailheads to really comment, your failure will not be as a result of too much pressure.

**njlimbaugh** · 01-19-2008, 06:31 AM

You need to invest in a Motors or Chilton's repair manual for the appropriate year series. That will give you step by step directions for anything out of the ordinary as well as clearances and settings for all of the appropriate areas of the engine. I agree with the above, the oil pressure had nothing to do with the fact that your gears failed. Either one of the gears was wrong (not likely) or something was off with the alignment of those gears. Possibly, something was binding in either the cam or the distributor, probably the distributor. Was the cam or distributor changed during the rebuilt? Something other than oil pressure killed the mesh.

**bakersfour** · 01-19-2008, 12:34 PM

I noticed when I took cam out that the washer on front of cam gear was missing. The gear was not tight against the thrust plate. There was a lot of play front to back on the cam. I am wondering if that contributed to the gear failure. Any ideas. thanks for any info.

**njlimbaugh** · 01-19-2008, 01:45 PM

That didn't help. With the camshaft moving back and forth with acceleration/decelleration it puts a side load on the distributor gear/shaft and will scuff the gear contact faces.

**bakersfour** · 01-19-2008, 08:05 PM

is the washer on front of cam sprocket just a flat washer or somthing special. thanks for any info . Bryan

**njlimbaugh** · 01-20-2008, 07:06 AM

Most thrust washers tend to be made of bronze with, perhaps, annular grooves to retain lubricant. But, for this you need to get a cross section view of the engine, or talk to either a specialist in these engines, or talk to a speciality parts supplier.

**bakersfour** · 01-20-2008, 01:48 PM

I have the thrust washer . I just need the washer that holds the timing sprocket onto the camshaft.From everything I've read it looks like a flat washer then a lock washer, but none of the books are real clear. Any ideas thanks.

**telriv** · 01-20-2008, 02:48 PM

1st. off Bakersfour we here are a friendly group & it's always nice to have at least a 1st. name. Now, getting past that we need to get into the workings of a '53-'55 engine, whether it be a 264 or a 322. There is a reason the '56/322 is preferred over the older engines, it was more modern & updated. Getting past that, again, the '55 back engines had steel billet cams & a matching gear for the distributor & matching hydraulic lifters. The '56-'66 engines all had cast cams, matching distributor gears & lifters. If someone wasn't paying attention, & this is very easy to mess up, they could have put a newer distributor or cam in on the older steel parts, as a '56 cam & lifters are more readily available. Won't last long in either case. There is NO thrust washer on the front of the cam. There is a + mark inside the timing cover that is the thrust area. I have never seen one even worn, much less worn out. The order goes: cam gear, fuel pump eccentric, heavy flat washer, lock washer, then bolt. Another missed part, very often, is the O-Ring behind the cam in the block. This keeps the cam from pushing too far back into the block & wearing a groove in the front of the block from the timing gear. This O-Ring is behind the last cam bearing & can only be gotten to by removing the rear cam plug. With the cam out you should be able to see or feel it's presence. With all those metal shavings in the engine you would do yourself a favor & just pull the engine to get all these shavings out of the oil galleries. Barring this, you need to at least remove the oil filter housing/adapter & oil pump & use much Brakleen to get these galleries as clean as possible, including the galleries where the lifters are. Take apart the oil pump & clean that out also. Good Brakleen may be kinda expensive, but we don't want to do this over again anytime soon. Now onto cam, lifter & maybe distributor gear replacement. '55 & older stuff is kinda expensive, as not in cheap. You, would again, do yourself a favor by updating to newer components which are less costly which is why Buick did this. With a cam replacement you will, or should, either way you go, replace the lifters anyway. All NailHead distributors interchange. This means you can put in up to a '66 distributor & get the availability of more modern ignition components, even electronic ignition, much more readily available & replaceable. You can get a newer cam from '57-'66 readily available from NAPA, along with new lifters. You will need to have the journals of the new cam cut down to your '55 cam journal diameters. Now you have just done some of the updates Buick did & it costs less $$$$$. The '57-'66 cam will be a wilder, more aggressive cam than the original. Just some options for you.

Tom T.

**bakersfour** · 01-22-2008, 04:36 PM

Tom , Thanks for the reply. My name is Bryan and I am sort of new to this forum. I just purchased this 55 special thid fall. This is my first project car. I dont have equipt. to pull the engine so I will use the brakekleen to clean . I purchaced an aftermarket cam and lifters that are cast iron. Was also able to find dist. gear for a 401 that i was told would work. The ring in back of block that you talked about , is that a snap ring? The previous owner had the engine overhauled but only had about 2000 miles when it quit. It looks like they forgot the flat washer on front of cam gear. when i took it apart the there was alot of play in the cam. I also bought new gears for oil pump.Is there anything i need to do to prep cam and lifters before installing them. thanks for any info. Bryan!