camshaft good to go or replace?

Status
Not open for further replies.
jseng1 said:
The problem with high wear factory cams is that the material just doesn't hold up well. Its very doubful that more oil will save it. The lobes need to be hardfaced and then ground. I am just starting on hardfacing cams myself so I can have some quality control and choose the best grinds, it gets labor intensive. The other problem is the flat stock lifters. Radiused lifters last much longer. The pointy cams for stock flat lifters are a high stress and high wear item - the sharp nose just basically wipes the oil off the lifter. Cams designed for radiused lifters have a rounder nose and the stress is spread out over a broader area - the oil can wedge between the cam and lifter surfaces instead of being scraped off. So unless you go with aftermarket radius lifter designs, you can expect to be replacing cams.

This is a fair comment, there should have been a good quality control at the cam making factory, but we all know how it goes when you use outside suppliers :!:
If the lobes wear, the first thing I would want to check apart from checking the oil & cam followers is to get the lobes hardness tested –you never know if an extra soft cam has slipped through.
As for the oil, there is a supply of drip oil coming through the pushrod tunnel.
Re “The other problem is the flat stock lifters. Radiused lifters last much longer. The pointy cams for stock flat lifters are a high stress and high wear item - the sharp nose just basically wipes the oil off the lifter.” -The flat cam followers should have a small chamfer on the nose to ease it onto the lobe lift.
With all the work involved it probably would be better and cheaper obtaining a second-hand cam that has no visible wear on the lobes and reface the cam followers and deburr the chamfer with an oil stone.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top