Since the cam was destroyed, I was looking at an ordeal. The Buick motors are known for "wiping" cam lobes due to an oiling problem. This shows up during the cam "break-in" where you run the motor around 2000 RPM for the first 20-30 minutes the engine is started. This is done to provide a smooth wear pattern on the face of the valve lifter which rides on the cam. Flat tappet cams are ground with a slight tilt to the surface the lifter rides on. This causes the lifter to spin and avoid hot spots. If there is a problem such as a lifter not spinning, the cam and lifter grind each other to bits. One of the amazing things I have learned is that the cam lobes and lifters are lubricated by oil splashing from the crankshaft and leakage from the lifters and cam bearings. Not a very positive lubrication scheme.
One Buick cam manufacturer has said they loose 30% of the flat tappet cams they do "in house". I have a friend (now an engineer) who used to work for the local GM dealer in the 80's. He remembers replacing many cams in the Buick V6s.
When I installed the cam that was damaged, I had a terrible oil leak. See the section on the engine girdle. I had to keep running the motor and pour more oil in while it was running. The oil dripped onto the exhaust pipe and smoked like crazy. The smoke alarms in the garage made an awful racket but we had to keep going. Breaking in a cam is a critical process. I wasn't happy about repeating this.
I took advantage of the occasion and upgraded to a hydraulic roller cam. This has little wheels on the bottom of the valve lifters which roll on the cam surface rather than the sliding and spinning a conventional flat tappet hydraulic cam does. This has less friction and is much more reliable. Best of all...There is no break-in!
Additional advantages of a roller cam are due to the reduced friction. The ramp of the cam can be made much steeper and higher. This opens the valve faster and wider. Roller cams also handle a higher spring pressure (130 lbs vs 100 lbs) so you can turn higher RPMs without valve float.
I bought a kit which came with roller lifters, push rods, new valve springs, the cam, and a Torrington bearing setup to hold the cam in place instead of the traditional "cam button".