Technical Y-block Ford rocker oiling,,How I fix it !

taken from one of ted eaton's posts on the y blocks forever forum:

it is the groove in the center camshaft journal that’s the root of the problem and not the other two holes in the bearing that permit oil to be fed to the top of the engine. Even if the two additional holes in the bearing were not there, that groove is allowing some of the oil pressure to bleed off at the top of the journal and is preventing a proper oil dynamic wave from being created at the bottom of the journal. The wear characteristics at the center cam bearing with a cross drilled camshaft are much more reduced than what is seen with the grooved camshaft journal. The engineers at Ford must have wrestled with this as the 1954 and 1955 engines used cross drilled center journal camshafts and went to the grooved camshafts in 1956. Comes 1963, the cross drilled camshafts are back for the Ford pickups and trucks. If it's any consolation to the cross-drilled camshaft design, I've pulled apart several of those engines that were very high mileage with some being over 300K miles and they were still oiling the top ends of the engine just fine. Good oil and regular changes go a long way in keeping the wear to a minimum on these engines.

Complicating that cam bearing wear issue is the latest crop of cam bearings. They are softer than the originals and just wear or ‘seat in’ much more quickly. The Engine Tech CC-508 bearings made in South America are a harder material than found in the Sealed Power and Durabond cam bearings for the Y. If I know I’m going to have a cam bearing issue such as with a 312 with crooked cam tunnels, then the Sealed Power or Durabond bearings are definitely easier to ‘carve’ on in which to get the camshaft to freely turn. For the 272 and 292 engines that are not going to present an issue, then the Engine Tech cam bearings are the bearings of choice.

 

I put 200,000 miles on my '56 312 engine without any of the rocker shaft oiling issues, or any other issue for that matter. It was never taken down for any repairs.......sounded as quiet as a low mileage engine. The only non-stock item I put on it was a Rochester 4GC carb/air cleaner. I changed the oil and filter every 1500-2000 miles though, and put a quart of kerosene in the crankcase before draining the old oil. Ran the engine without load for about 15 minutes then drained everything, refilled with new oil/filter. After the body rotted away, the engine ran for several more years in an old fishing boat. One data point for good maintenance.......

 

The best fix is to grove the block be behind center cam bearing. but every thing back stock with good oil and service will work fine. If only one side stopped the bearing should be OK

 

It has been noted that the groove in aftermarket cams is too shallow; for example, the groove in my Howard's Cam is 0.020. John Mummert's cams (ford-y-block.com) have a groove depth of 0.030. Isn't 1/16+ (0.0625+) excessive?