Do cams ever go bad?
TECH Resident
Joined: Dec 2004
Posts: 845
Likes: 0
From: K-W, Ontario
Did you forget to put oil in the motor?
Looks like the surface layer has been taken off.
Roller cams rarely fail. I have seen some of the hardened layer wear down
on a couple rollers in my time.
Looks like the surface layer has been taken off.
Roller cams rarely fail. I have seen some of the hardened layer wear down
on a couple rollers in my time.
What happened? I don't know. There definitely was oil in the car and I think it happened over a long period of time. I had this cam in for 60K miles! Possibly the camshaft wasn't heat treated correctly. The lifters looked good, plus this wear only occurred on the first 8 lobes of the cam, the back 8 were perfect.
Obviously, you can see why I thought this was my only problem, that's why I did the H/C swap. However, after doing the swap, the same engine noise was happening, hence, the new shortblock.
Obviously, you can see why I thought this was my only problem, that's why I did the H/C swap. However, after doing the swap, the same engine noise was happening, hence, the new shortblock.
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Originally Posted by 777
Sound to me like the tolerances weren't set up right...
Originally Posted by Byter
This is why I had to get all the mods in my sig...
TECH Resident
Joined: Oct 2004
Posts: 800
Likes: 1
From: Simi VAlley,CA
I have seen LS-1 type engines with failed camshafts, it doesn't happen very often but the most common failure is when a piece of the cam lobe either fractures or the hardfacing flakes off. From that point it starts to damage the lifter roller and if not fixed soon it will sometimes cause enough clearance gain to toss a pushrod and start braking other pieces. In our dealership I have seen two in the past couple of years (that is a low percentage of the 1000 warranty repairs per month we perform).I have never seen a cam bearing fail on one of these yet.
Launching!
Joined: Nov 2004
Posts: 289
Likes: 0
From: Flower Mound, TX
Originally Posted by Byter
At least that is what I told the wife!
Honey, my cam is worn out so I need to go out and get some Z06 calipers and Bilstein shocks along with a $4000 shortblock...
DAMN, the next girl I get I am NOT teaching as much about cars.
Originally Posted by BottleRocket
Honey, my cam is worn out so I need to go out and get some Z06 calipers and Bilstein shocks along with a $4000 shortblock...
DAMN, the next girl I get I am NOT teaching as much about cars.
DAMN, the next girl I get I am NOT teaching as much about cars.
