VCCA Home Forums TECHNICAL - 1945 AND EARLIER 1933-1936 34 engine

I dropped the oil pan on my 34 Master to clean (its been 30+years) and adjust main and rod bearings. I also pulled the cylinder head and removed the waterpump and plate to give the water jackets a good cleaning in the block, letting the water rush out the front of the engine. Upon further inspection I noticed there is some up and down movement of the camshaft at the rear journal. I'm afraid it will be hard to hold accurate valve adjustment with this play, and of course it will only become worse over time. I don't believe there is a replacable insert( I think they came out in '35). Have any of you ever encountered this problem?

The 1934 Manual has no specs but the 1949 manual states that the clearence should be .002 to.0004"......which can seem quite loose.
The block in my '34 showed wear also and I never did anything about it. The load on the cam is constant and is always pushing the cam to the bottom of the bearing. Personally I would not worry about it, escecailly for the small amount of driving these cars get. I put over 20,000 miles on mine and really saw no bad results.
I would bet that most all of the well used 1934 and prior engines are like this. The only fix would be to tear it down and line bore the journals and install a set of 1935-36 bearings.