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Dirty cam - heads up

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Old 03-26-2003, 01:02 PM
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Default Dirty cam - heads up

Perhaps I missed the cleaning tip from the online install guides we use.

There was an alarming amount of junk inside my new cam, it looked like grease. The grease was a paste of metal filings. Some of the metal chunks were as large as 1mm long, but the rest being the size of fine sand.

Not really impressed that it was that 'dirty' right out of the box. I am glad that I spent the 20-25 minutes cleaning it. I wanted to share this with people who are fanatical about clean parts, and warn those who install without inspecting.

The center of the ls1 cam is gun drilled. I am making the assumption that is done for the purpose of reducing weight. Again most of the junk was on the inside of the cam.
Old 03-26-2003, 01:26 PM
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Default Re: Dirty cam - heads up

That's very common for a cam to be like that from the cam grinders. Anything that goes into your engine should be fanatically cleaned.
Old 03-26-2003, 03:20 PM
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Default Re: Dirty cam - heads up

Wow, interesting. I've never looked inside my cams to see if they were filthy in there. I'll add that tip to my writeups on my website. Thanks.

BTW, what did you use to clean it out? Can you just spray brake cleaner through the center or did you stuff paper towels down in there?
Old 03-26-2003, 06:28 PM
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Default Re: Dirty cam - heads up

jmX ......yah....what Paul said. They're all usually nasty. I'm kinda' **** about internal cleanliness too <img border="0" title="" alt="[Roll Eyes]" src="images/icons/rolleyes.gif" /> Always run a rifle cleaning brush through it a few times....spray it down w/brake cleaner and repeat. A piece of mind thing...... <img border="0" title="" alt="[Wink]" src="gr_images/icons/wink.gif" />
Old 03-26-2003, 09:53 PM
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Default Re: Dirty cam - heads up

</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Originally posted by jmX:
<strong> Wow, interesting. I've never looked inside my cams to see if they were filthy in there. I'll add that tip to my writeups on my website. Thanks.

BTW, what did you use to clean it out? Can you just spray brake cleaner through the center or did you stuff paper towels down in there? </strong></font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">I used carb cleaner and used a large white paper cardboard to catch whatever might wash out. It looked pretty crappy before starting.

Then cleaned it by pushing wadded pieces of paper towel with lesser amounts of carb cleaner through it till clean.


Do not peer down your new push rods either. :-|
Old 03-26-2003, 10:01 PM
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Default Re: Dirty cam - heads up

A 20 Gauge shotgun cleaning kit should do the trick for you. It has the scrub brushes and cloth holder that you can use to really work all the junk out.




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