cam trouble

natedogr

New Member
Sep 12, 2006
296
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Chatham, Va
so i'm in the middle of my rebuild and this is the only thing holding me back right now. i've gone trough three sets of cams and only one cam was in good condition with a light polish. all the other ones have some deep scratches on the first few journals. the lobes are fine but the journals have deep scratches and some of them have discoloration, like the metal has been shaved off or something. i've never heard anyone have so much trouble with stock cams before so when my shop told me they were messed up i figured he was talking about the normal wear our cams have, but no it wasnt. right now i have one good exhaust cam and the guy at the shop is going to try to polish one of the intake cams as close as he can to spec. so what do you guys think? have ya'll had this kind of trouble or are they really ok to just polish and be fine? thanks
 

ViR2

Supraniac
May 20, 2006
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Lithuania
www.hpaddict.eu
it happens because of bad stock oiling system, so you need to heat your engine before you go in 7m ;) Mine ware also bad, but my mechanic had them polished and its ok now ;)
 

Poodles

I play with fire
Jul 22, 2006
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Fort Worth, TX
sounds like your shop doesn't know too much...

the "scratches" are the aluminum deposits from the head, it's completely normal...

I've never heard of trashed cams... the head would be trashed first...
 

natedogr

New Member
Sep 12, 2006
296
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Chatham, Va
thats what i was thinking too. i've never heard of anyone else having this problem. the shop was going to try to polish one of the "bad" intake cams. im gonna go by there today and see if they worked on them or not. thanks for the help.
 

natedogr

New Member
Sep 12, 2006
296
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Chatham, Va
they're going to see if they can get them within spec. if not then i have to find yet another set. like i said the guys at the shop think they are bad. one did have deep scratches on the first journal but the other was not as bad.
 

starscream5000

Senior VIP Member
Aug 23, 2006
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Hot and Humid, KY
If they get polished, then the extra material being removed could possibly put the tolerances between the cams and the cam saddles out of spec, thus the saddles will need to be resized. If not, the polished cams will just gouge out the saddle even more. That means nice little AL shavings floating around in your oil, heading towards your rod and main bearings ;).
 

Poodles

I play with fire
Jul 22, 2006
16,757
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Fort Worth, TX
yep ^^

almost sounds like one of those shops that thinks that there are bearings that go in the journals...

it's completely normal to have it on there, and is easily removed...but is pointless as more will be deposited and it will loosen the clearances...
 

natedogr

New Member
Sep 12, 2006
296
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Chatham, Va
thats what i thought, that this was normal wear. when i looked at them again it does look like a polish could do the trick. i told the shop to go ahead and polish them and see if they are within spec. i'll see on friday how they turned out.
 

natedogr

New Member
Sep 12, 2006
296
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Chatham, Va
if the polished my cams and they weren't in spec could i adjust the cam caps to bring the clearances back to spec? does the TSRM show how to adjust them?
 

Suprapowaz!(2)

New Member
Apr 10, 2006
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San Antonio, Tx.
Poodles said:
sounds like your shop doesn't know too much...

the "scratches" are the aluminum deposits from the head, it's completely normal...

I've never heard of trashed cams... the head would be trashed first...


Those are deep scratches on my cams. I think these are trashed.

dscf3049rm4.jpg



dscf3052gj7.jpg



Let me see if I can get some better pics. I'll be right back.
 

natedogr

New Member
Sep 12, 2006
296
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Chatham, Va
mine looked a lot like that. never checked the head where the journals lay thought to see if there were scratches there too.

edit: so the part of the journal that is scratched is the aluminum deposits? just trying to get this straight. and also, what is the cam cap adjustment you were talking about IJ?
 

Suprapowaz!(2)

New Member
Apr 10, 2006
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San Antonio, Tx.
I just snapped these pics. I don't think those are just "aluminum deposits" from the head. I could be wrong, but I went to three different machine shops and they all told me to replace them.

005lx8.jpg


004rb4.jpg


007ku5.jpg