Rust/crap on cam lobe. Not sure if starting is a good idea. *Pics*

[Figit090]

on my way home the other day the car was leaking some coolant out of a pinhole leak in the rear engine-valve heater hose...

i shut it off, get the mail, and 30 seconds later its steaming out the hood. dripping coolant onto exaust downpipe. no biggie...need new hose.

its been about 5-6 days (been kinda busy, and the hose took 2 days to come in)

i unscrew the oil cap and i see what looks like beads of condensation...meh..no biggie, the whole engine bay has some spots of water here and there.

i look at the cam lobe.

awww shit. purpleish rust. and the oil cap had a little bit of a coating... i'm hoping its not a BHG, and i doubt it is.... i didnt really do anything to do that. and i cant afford to fix it now so lets not jump to conclusions!

my problem: there's the rust on at least one cam lobe, it was in the upmost position, obviously out of the oil and apparently moisture got to it. i can wipe it off with a kleenex/my finger so i believe it will all come off with a couple revolutions. i'm not too worried. what do you think i should do? just start it up and let my WIX filter take care of it? i'm not sure what else i really could do...but i thought i'd check to see exactly how bad it could be. i'm probably going to just start it up and keep tabs on the oil.

blahhh...here are some pics. before during and after some mild scraping with my finger/fingernail and a kleenex

 

[akito]

keep trying to get it all out.....for some reason it looks very scary to me....

 

[Figit090]

well all i can see is this one lobe obviously....and....

i really dont want to remove the cam covers. no time.

it does look scary, but pay most attention to the last pic. it seems to come off relatively easy, whereas the first pic looks like a rusted piece of metal from a junkyard.....

 

[Mr.PFloyd]

remove the cam covers... it takes like 20 minutes. why do i have a funny feeling this motor had a very bad case of the bhg before?

 

[Figit090]

i could click the starter a few times and get it to revolve once....see how well it wipes off....

i already clicked the starter a couple times to get the lobe to turn (didnt even revolve once, just wanted a better view)

----EDIT---

is HAS had a BHG before.

new oil....fresh after BHG rebuild and then new oil a couple weeks later... thats what i'm currently running on.

 

[Mr.PFloyd]

well if shit falls off, its going into your oil...

 

[Figit090]

yeah....

GOD this sucks i have so much homework.

maybe i'll let it sit until friday and figure out what to do. i hate this.

 

[Figit090]

its not in the garage....

and its getting dark. i might HAVE to.

 

[jdub]

Pull the cam covers...clean that all up...use new gaskets.

Then...CHANGE THE OIL & FILTER!!!!!

Do not run the car till you do

 

[suprageezer]

This isn’t a fix for the cause but, if you can get to the lobes that are shown in the pics. Get yourself some Acetone (Highly Flammable) and some Wood bleach (local Hardware store). Clean the lobes off where the rust is using acetone and white paper towels, keep using a new one until when you wipe, no oil is coming off anymore. Next mix your wood bleach up per the ration it tells you to use and using an acid brush, brush it on the rust, you might have to brush it more then once so that the Rust dissolves. Once you feel you've got it all dissolved, wipe everything off with mixture of DI water and Baking soda to neutralize the wood bleach, then just DI water to finish it off, use another acid brush and brush on some fresh oil to coat everything you've cleaned.

 

[Figit090]

well. i guess i'll do that then.

i dont want to buy a new filter...the one i have is relatively new. i might change the oil though, and if i do that i will probably get a new filter as well. damn it.

ok. umm....i'm going to push it in the garage (not sure how) and look under the covers this weekend.

any suggestions before i let it sit a few more days? maybe i'll begin removing stuff tomorrow so the rust doesnt have time to get worse...

bugger this bites.

 

[Figit090]

This isn’t a fix for the cause but, if you can get to the lobes that are shown in the pics. Get yourself some Acetone (Highly Flammable) and some Wood bleach (local Hardware store). Clean the lobes off where the rust is using acetone and white paper towels, keep using a new one until when you wipe, no oil is coming off anymore. Next mix your wood bleach up per the ration it tells you to use and using an acid brush, brush it on the rust, you might have to brush it more then once so that the Rust dissolves. Once you feel you've got it all dissolved, wipe everything off with mixture of DI water and Baking soda to neutralize the wood bleach, then just DI water to finish it off, use another acid brush and brush on some fresh oil to coat everything you've cleaned.

wow, that sounds complicated. lol, that is just directions for cleaning the lobes right? not polishing them? i'm not too worried...

but i am curious why the hell this happened. maybe moisture trapped since the BHG? when it blew i took an air compressor (with moister barrier) and blew out a ton of steam every afternoon when i got home for like a week. i asked about it and realised i was just causing the steam by injecting colt air into a hot engine.

so maybe its just been hangin' out in the engine all this time.... and i let it sit long enough for rust to form.

 

[NashMan]

well if you had bhg that bad you have so massive pitting in the block

i say you may have cracked head is you oil milk shack

are you run breath filter on you vavle covers

 

[Figit090]

well if you had bhg that bad you have so massive pitting in the block

i say you may have cracked head is you oil milk shack

are you run breath filter on you vavle covers

first line - uhh...i think my car may have had two BHG's...not sure. either way, it runs great. or at least, it did when i turned it off 4 days ago

second line - great. just what i need. doubtful. possible. but probably not. i have the old headgasket, and it was blown to shit on #5 and 6...4 was on its way out...

third line - what??

----EDIT----
a breather filter on my valve covers? where's that? i'm confused.

 

[Mr.PFloyd]

do you run a breather for your valve covers, ie a non vacuumed catch can. and dude, change ur oil filter... the 10 dollars for the filter will save you hundreds for a potential bottom end rebuild.

 

[jdub]

third line - what??

Are you running breather filters on your valve covers vs the stock PCV piping?

 

[Figit090]

i'm not sure. pretty sure its stock... the only things i know off that breathe the valve covers are the t-shaped pipe out the tops of each to the throttle body, and the breather hose from the crankcase to the drivers side cover.

cyro - ok good point.

 

[CRE]

If you pull the cover the there's less or no rust on the other cam lobes, then I'd suspect the water that's causing it is vapor coming up from the oil pan through the crankcase vent hose which enters right there. If that's the case, I would drain the oil and check for contamination asap.

 

[Figit090]

hmmm, that sounds like its definitely possible. i'll remove the covers and check, and check the bolts for tightness while i'm in there. i've been meaning to do that. (i had them at like...70ft/lbs so they should be ok, and no, they arent new so shouldnt have stretched)

____edit---------

its not just possible but i think that may have happened.

at least its surface and easy to rub off. should polish right up

i sure hope this turns out cheap. i dont want to be forced to sell my baby. i love it, and so does everybody else.

 

[Figit090]

i checked, only one cam lobe as you predicted... and a little slugy oil in the breather, and next to the cam with rust. thats it though.. the oil that drained out is a little murky, but i havent looked at it up close yet because i let it drip overnight.

i'll get new oil and a filter today and see how she runs.... thanks for the advice, OH and the cam lobe cleaned right up. finger and clother took off most of it, and a razor blade cleaned it up the rest of the way perfectly...