Hello to all and I hope someone here can clear up something for me on my latest rebuild of the 454 going into my 1984 Black Beauty Silverado.. I got the engine completely tore down and was getting ready to install new cam bearings when I notice the #1 cam journal oil feed hole in the block was NOT drilled all the way into the cam journal area. I could not see into the cam area from the crankshaft side of the oil hole. . Neither could I get a small screwdriver all the way thru,,!! WTH,,?? After breaking two drill bits, I tried a hardened drift punch with the tip ground on an angle and managed to chip off little pieces of what looked like cast iron material,,,,,,The oil hole had never been drilled all the way theru at the factory!!! After several hours,, I finally borrowed a cobalt drill bit and very very slowly drilled all the way thru ,Dang,,!!
NOW,,,NOW,!!,,I find that the #5 oil hole was not drilled straight "Down" into the center of where the cam bearing will be,,,but has actually been drilled at an extreme angle towards the back of the block and completely misses the dang cam bearing,,!! This engine has been running in an old farm truck for several years without an oiling issue until the farmer told me it busted a radiator hose and got hot on him so he just bought a new crate 454. I slid a rod same size as the factory oil hole into the block oil hole and the rod actually was hitting the cam plug at back of block,,!!
I'm in a heck of a quandry on how to proceed as I got lots of dollars tied up in parts for this block. My first thought is to take the block to a machine shop to re-drill the oil hole straight down so the oil flow is going straight to the cam bearing. Questions here are should the offset portion of the factory drilled oil hole be filled with say some lead,,,?? OR,,should I just leave as is as it did run like this for so long but don't have an idea what kind of oil pressure the engine had,,?? I don't plan to race this engine but I don't want to worry bout this from now on either.
I NEED SOME GUIDANCE, Please.

 

It dosen't matter if the oil ports are at an angle, as LONG AS YOU GET OIL FEED TO THE BEARINGS. Cam bearings really last forever under normal cicumstances.