Installed an ms4 camshaft in my 2000 ls1 camaro with patriot gold double valve springs and double roller timing chain w/ ls6 pump. The double roller timing chain came with the "torrington bearing" and after running the motor twice for 2-3 minutes each time the motor developed a noise on passenger side. I pulled dipstick and found metal, drained oil found metal, so i commenced to taking the cam back out to find out what happened. I found three lifters on the passenger side where the rollers were flatened, and on the front of the motor the roller bearing seemed to have been pulled or pushed towards the back of the motor and beveled itself into the cam plate till it split in two which destroyed the cam plate and roller bearing both. Also on the cam half of the lobes that those three lifters rode on were chewed up a little bit. What could have caused this? Are you supposed to get a different style cam plate maybe when using this type timing chain?

P.S. It wasnt the front cover pushing it neither, for there were no rubbing marks to be found anywhere on it.

 

Pictures would help.

When you say the lifter rollers flattened, does it appear they were running on the edge of the cam lobe?

Which cam plate do you have, the newer one with the countersunk holes?

Is the timing chain broke too?


Was the upper timing gear tight when you took it apart again?

 

I will try to post pictures up of the damage tonight , im at work right now. But to answer your questions yes they were running on half the lobe , however i do not understand why only three of the lifters got messed up when all the rest appear to be perfectly fine.I have a stock replacement cam plate which is just flat with the teflon seal on the back for the oil galleys, so i guess its not the one with the countersunk holes. And no the timing chain is not broken in fact it seems perfectly fine , the back of the timing chain gear where the cam rides is a little chewed up from the pushing or pulling i described before though which yes caused the gear to be hard to pull off the cam because it seemed to have stuck itself to the face of the cam due to friction heat.

 

Did you tap the crank sprocket that came with the timing chain all the way onto the crank snout? It should press on.

 

yes i sure did

 

Wow that sucks

 

I suspect the cam retainer plate may have been the cause. Take a look at this link, which did your new plate look like? Link

Note that the new design requires different bolts and a lower torque value so the plate won't split.

 

i used the top one without the countersunk bolt holes, however what would that have done to help the pulling or pushing of the cam?

 

is that new plate with countersink thinner by chance? that could have helped my issue if so...

 

The top one is much less likely to have a problem. The one that has countersunk holes have been found split from the factory in some motors. Did the cam spin freely? The lifter and lobe damage was caused by the cam moving in and out of the motor so the cam retainer plate is still a prime suspect I would think. The Torrington would have gotten beat up if the plate split. Were all parts tightened to the correct torque?

DId you verify alignment of the gears without the chain prior to installing the chain?

 

yes all parts were torqued correctly, and the torrington was damaged.

 

since you pulled the lifters, how did your lifter retainers look? they didnt by chance break letting a lifter spin did they?

 

nope i had put them in the ls2 lifter trays and they were all perfectly fine