I did my first
oil change a few weeks ago after my cam replacement. I had a little bit of metal on the magnetic drain plugs and I had that OH $hit not again feeling where you want to loosen a fuel fitting and throw a lit match at it.
So I gathered my courage and pulled the dizzy. It must have been the last few bits of the old gear floating around. I saved the filter, but haven't cut it open yet. It's so messy. I'll do it sometime.
On the up side, the gear was absolutely drenched and dripping with
oil, and both gears have shiny mating surfaces, but no signs of missing material, so I think the lubing channels are open and functioning. It sure runs good! The new cam still has plenty of lope for me, but better vacuum at idle and pulls like a train all the way up to 6200 where I set the limiter.
On my motor, even if Ford offered to repair it if I removed, crated, shipped and reinstalled, I would say no thanks. Changing the cam out was much easier that removing and reinstalling the engine would have been, and I know those monkeys didn;t touch it! If I just let them fix it, I don't think I would be able to drive the car again for fear of being stranded somewhere.
Catch the problems before they go catastrophic and you'll be OK. It has what looks like good short block parts. I haven't put enough miles on it yet to comment on
oil consumption, but it doesn't smoke enough to embarrass me, so the oil consumption isn't a problem for me.