Camshaft bearings are sized to fit into the cam housing bore in a specific order.
They also must be driven into position perfectly straight, with the oil galley holes lined up. If you’ve done everything right, once the camshaft is in place, it should spin by hand with ease!
In today’s video from our friends at Summit Racing, Brian and Mike demonstrate the proper way to install cam bearings in LS Gen 3, LS Gen 4, or LT Gen 5 engines. They’re using a late-Gen 3 LS engine block that they rescued from the returns bin and turned into a project 408, but the same techniques work on all of these blocks.
The video provides several tips for cleaning, for how to determine bearing order and orientation, and for test-fitting the camshaft.
Brian and Mike also share how to operate the Summit Racing cam bearing installation tool.
Sometimes called a cam bearing driver, cam bearing tool, or knocker, this tool has a bearing die and centering cone sized specifically to fit the cam journals of Gen 3 LS engines. The removable bearing die allows you to install the first three bearings, and then reverse the tool in the block to install the last two. The same tool can be used to drive out old bearings as well.
[…] Camshaft bearings are sized to fit into the cam housing bore in a specific order. They also must be driven into position perfectly straight, with the oil galley holes lined […] Read full article at http://www.onallcylinders.com […]
Hello. Thanks for the excellent video. I do have one question. I didn’t think you were supposed to use any lubricant on the backside of the bearings when they are install. Could you clarify this. Thanks again.
Hello Gary, when we researched this we did find differences between manufacturers. Bob McBroom of Dura-Bond recommends lubrication. We have found varying answers from Clevite, but the information on their website contained the following: “Coat all bearing surfaces with Clevite Bearing Guard”
https://www.mahle-aftermarket.com/na/en/support/installation-tips/cam-bearings-perf-tips.jsp
We went with this information. Note to never use something like Anti-seize.
Thank you.
Regarding: “Coat all ‘bearing surfaces” with Clevite Bearing Guard and all camshaft lobes and lifter faces with Cam Guard to provide a pre-lubricant to these critical surfaces.
-the bearing surface getting coated is obvious. The bearing backside getting coated, going in dry, or getting Loctite seems like the big rant on message boards and YouTube comments. I think there’s a big difference between AL and iron blocks here, but wondering if there’s been any sound advice offered since.
Thanks in advance
[…] Quote from the source: … […]
Looked at 20 LS cam bearing install videos and read a gazillion differing comments. From what I gathered on LS aluminum blocks, yes- lubricant on the backside of the bearings on install is the way to. Heard of machinists and performance shops using green Loctite on the backside of bearings. Some iron block #2, #3 bearings spinning made this a proactive solution for machine shops. Does this sound about right?