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Location: "Birthplace of the Corvette" Watkins Glen New York
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1965 FI 327 30-30 cam question
Letting my 1965 Fuelie warm up in the driveway while I went to my truck to get sunglasses.Shut the door, just then heard the loudest "SNAP" I ever heard! The Vette motor locked up! No reason at all, a rod snapped! Took out the whole bottom end including the cam. What would me the best cam to replace the 30-30 solid lifter cam? Can't find an OEM cam.
^^^Pretty sure they do.
ID be tempted to see what Isky or Crower offered as a replacement.
At idle, wow. Guess you never know! At least it didnt barf oil under your tires while you were at speed.
DZ Auto still post here? Think he dressed up a 400 as a FI327 imagine having up to 100 lbs more torque.
It would be tempting to do a stockish appearing 400, more modern solid flat tappet, some aluminum tfs 175 heads w/a little work .etc
White coated headers (kinda period)..youd have a monster on your hands.
Or just go find a nice 4 bolt 350 block and build another
Plenty of correct casting blocks still out there, as far as rotating assembly, you might want to consider an aftermarket package,…. Quality chosen depends on your usage/anticipated RPM, budget. And yes, most here go for the milder LT-1 cam, I always preferred the 30-30 myself (but I’m more of a high-performance use guy versus a mild mannered street driver), if you’re not in a hurry you can get one ground for you, you might want to consider getting it melanite treated as well, and use the lifters with the tiny lobe oiling hole on the face, just my recommendation
Both Howard’s and Elgin still have the 30/30 OR the 1970 LT1 which had always been listed as the replacement cam for the 30/30. I just bought one through Summit but had to call Howard’s to get the number to give to Summit for either of these cams.
Sorry to hear.... the early ('62-'65 ) rods are weak and susceptible to failure at the bolt seats. I've been hearing such stories since when your car was built.
The '66-67 327 rods are improved, but modern aftermarket rods are pretty much bulletproof. The least expensive are the Eagle SIR5700. At less than 300 bucks a set they are the best insurance policy you will ever buy.
The 30-30 cam is a very poor road engine cam. It was replaced by the LT-1 cam...lots of thread on this subject,
Beautiful car, but Ouch! Crap - that's just nasty. Sorry to see that. I would have been spewing cuss words after that - and probably would still be making new ones up. And it couldn't happen going into last winter?
Best of luck with it from here on out.
Both Howard’s and Elgin still have the 30/30 OR the 1070 Ly1 which had always listed as the replacement cam for the 30/30. I just bought one through Summit but had to call Howard’s to get the number to give to Summit for either of these cams.
It's 1970 ( to '72) LT-1 cam. We should all proofread our posts before hitting "submit replay"..
So sorry Famous, that really sucks. I've read a number of Duke's posts around the inherent weakness of these rods. As an owner of a born with '65 L76 engine you cringe at the thought of a broken rod and losing the block. You wonder if you are better off doing something proactive but hate to mess with a perfect, solid running motor.
Those are nice rods, had a set many yrs ago. Crower makes some real nice stuff.
OP that link a few posts up about the cam that member used....read the footnotes on it.
Direct lube lifters and is their version of the LT1 cam with some changes to pick things up. Might be worth looking into.
Bet it makes more torque and comes on earlier than the 30/30
OP I sure hope that wasn't the original block. OUCH! that wound up being a several thousand dollar hit because of junk early rods. I have said all along I wouldn't drive around the block with those POS' in an engine. Unfortunately, you just learned how unreliable they are. Man, that is a hell of a way to ruin a day.
Yeah, because I knew they were weak from all the stories including a friend who lost a '62 FI engine (installed in a '59), I decided to tear down my SWC's 327/340 at 115K miles in the mid-seventies, even though it still ran very strong and didn't consume much more oil than when new. Magnaflux inspection showed that #7 had a crack clear across a bolt seat, which is the weak spot. It was a failure waiting to happen. The Mag inspector said I was lucky, and I agreed, but I also figured I was smart because I pre-empted a failure waiting to happen.
There was not much in the way of aftermarket rods back then. Carillos were big with trans-am and F5000 racers, but expensive like maybe $700 a set. (multiply that by 2 to 3 for current dollars). So I bought a set of the second design GM rods. I think they were less than ten bucks each. Then I did "full race prep" on them...had them Maganfluxed (They all passed.), then ground down the forging die flash, lightened the balance pads, had them shotpeened, and installed higher strength bolts, which required resizing.
Nowadays it's cheaper to buy a set of Eagle SIR5700 rods than do all the above labor intensive work.
The first design 327 rods were used '62 to '65. The second design with the additional material adjacent to the bolt seat showed up in '66, but maybe not at the start of production. 283 rods are even weaker than early 327 rods. The second design 327 rods got it right, at least for 6000 max rev engines, and 350 rods are okay, too... basically a good design and SHP SBs got the "pink" version that were Magnafluxed in production and had the bolt and nut seals shotpeened. The were identified with a pink splotch of paint.
05-23-2022, 04:18 PM
1965 FI 327 30-30 cam question
Dennis
