“Wiped Cam Reveal”

I wiped out one lobe and found out the day after the rebuild of my first car, a '65 Valiant 273 automatic. This is what happened:
I was new at this and did the rebuild myself at Community College Auto Shop circa 1975. When I installed the small block distributor, I did not factory index the rotor/oil pump shaft. The result of installing the distributor in that fashion was that the vacuum advance was hitting the firewall when I was trying to initiate the initial fire-up and set the timing correctly. I did a lot of cranking before re-arranging the spark plug wires in the distributor cap. Finally figured things out and started, ran for 30 minutes @ 2000 - 3000 RPM. The next day when the motor developed other problems not related to wiping out the camshaft lobe, during my inspection I discovered the damaged to the camshaft.

This was an Isky solid lifter camshaft with .480 lift and 280 degrees advertised duration. Isky warranted the camshaft and replaced it. However, I put the warranty camshaft on the shelf and substituted an Isky .580 lift and 312 degree advertised duration camshaft for the repair/rebuild. I broke in the hotter camshaft without problem, using the catalog recommended dual valve springs and damper at initial start-up.

About 25 years later during a move, I opened the box where the warranty camshaft (.480/280) was shipped in, only to find the replacement camshaft from Isky had a very good coat of surface rust. I threw it out.