Barracuda black hole

[RGA]

So.... I took my wife's 66 barracuda apart 3 years ago ( 225 burning oil ). I picked up a 76 volare running good for $400 to get the 318. Volare ran great so figured just a re-seal, paint and swap. Pulled the motor and started pulling the tin and found the inside sludged bad. So tear the motor down and have machine work done and heads done and re-assemble. Hunt down all the brackets and manifolds and linkages to do the swap (63-66 a body small block manifolds are not easy to find). Install motor and run. Ran great for about 2 hours and locked up. Pull motor back out and drop the oil pan and find a section of cam sitting in the pan ! Bottom end completely wadded up from the center section of the cam snapping and falling into the bottom end. NEVER BUY A SUMMIT CAMSHAFT !!! So now I purchase a crate motor from autozone. Put it together and run it. Exhaust leak from drivers side manifold because the manifold is hitting the head (different casting I guess) so tonight I grind off the little casting thats hitting my manifold on this new head. Grind right into a coolant passage. Crap !

Thanks, just needed to vent a little.

[daveco]

Ah, the joys of old cars.
Rest assured, you are not alone.

[Indygenerallee]

Should have ground on the manifold!!!  Sorry I think it's funny cause I have been in your shoes!!! Just walk away... walk away...

[JB400]

If it wasn't for bad luck, we wouldn't have any at all   Murphy at his finest.

[ACUDANUT]

Did you add Zink ?

[Ghoste]

Some days its definitely two steps backwards instead of progress.  Deep breaths.

[wingcar]

What's that old rule of thumb:  "Measure once and Cut twice"......something like that.

[RGA]

Yup I'm dumb. Zinc ? Better add that zinc or you might snap your cam in half hahahahaha
Yes there was zinc involved.

[ACUDANUT]

Was your cam made in China? I'm being serious ..

[Lord Warlock]

Venting to others that can relate relieves stress.  Sometimes its an act of contrition to the car gods to admit defeat so you can move on.  Was in your shoes two weeks ago when running brake lines, to rear axle, ended up cutting thru the hub to get it off, cut thru the axle too, buy new ones, install those, go back to front brakes, find an issue with the brake line i just finished installing previous week, its too long to use the rear hold off valve, so went direct into main distribution block just to move forward. Now i get to take off the right rear wheel and see what damage i can do to that axle...already have a replacement if i want to change it, but also have to rebuild the drum brake on that side, hope its easier than the other side was.  

[RGA]

It was a summit cam. Don't know who makes them for summit but probably china.