[chuckbrandt]

It turns out my 289 block was okay afterall, but a very strange thing happened. I had found thin pieces of cam bearing lying around loose (and the cam had broken) so I assumed the cam had been grinding into the block. In fact, I found some bearing material in all the cam bearings when I got it all torn apart. My only conclusion is that one of the cam bearings "de-laminated" itself. The silver layer came off the copper looking layer! Can you believe that? Anyway, thanks for the input.

CDB