I've got a 454 that I was trying to sell. The guy I got it from about 2 years ago said a valve seat rattled loose. Well today I thought I would pull it apart and see for myself.The heads looked good, but I noticed the cam looked like it was too far back in the block. My guess was a lifter was hitting a lobe in front of it because he said it had a miss. I pulled the timing cover and upper timing gear off, it had actually wore into the block. I am assuming it is about a 1/4 inch deep groove in the block. Any suggestions on a simple fix? Thanks

How about a spacer? There are bronze washers sold for cam thrust, but they are thin. A spacer could be machined up for it if the oil passages are not damaged. check the oil pump and distributor, something caused a lot of extra drag on the cam, pulling it rearward. Sometimes a distributor can bottom out and push down on the oil pump shaft causing the gear to drag on the pump cover inside.
David

Greg,
The easiest thing to do would be to use a new style step nose (Gen6) hydraulic roller cam that uses the retaining plate to keep the cam from walking. The block should be drilled for the plate.

I have never seen one 1/4" deep .... thats pretty bad. A spacer would work, maybe combined with a torrington bearing ? But, like Dave said, you need to figure out what actually caused the problem first :(

I remeasured it and its about an 1/8th inch deep. Upon further inspection the plug in the back of the block, behind cam, was in backwards allowing the cam to walk backwards. Thats a guess on my part. I'm going to call my local machine shop Monday and talk to him. This engine only has about 20,000 miles and is very clean inside so I might reuse it in my other 69 Camaro project. Thanks for the info:beers:

The plug at rear of cam should never touch the cam, it's only to stop the oil leak. The front cam bearing may have been installed wrong not letting oil to the back side of the
gear. it may be possible to machine the block for the torrington bearings, but that is
iffy.