I'm wondering if anyone, besides me, has had premature wear issues with Cam Motion cam lobes? My first one, back in 2005, had one lobe worn considerably in only 30,000 miles. Too much time has elapsed to remember whether it was an intake or exhaust lobe. My second one has several lobes showing some serious wear, especially #8 exhaust, in 43,000 miles. Very happy with the performance of both, but very disappointed in the durability.......

 

Send the cam in for hardness testing. Cam motion stands behind their products.

 

what cam core did you have? the 8620 core is one that all of the cam mfg's are offering as the best/most durable.

 

As per the thread, went bad 18 years ago, and is in a landfill somewhere. Looking for others with failures. Standing behind current cam means little to me. The busting my *** part is more important. Filling my engine with shrapnel is also for sh..

 

Dont know, ordered thru builder. Regardless, shouldnt be offering inferior alloys.....

 

From what I've seen hereabouts about Cam Motion, they seem to put out a good product that they stand behind.
19 years is a long time, and cam manufacture has come a good ways, plus they might have had a run of inferior cores at the time.

 

True. But that first cam didnt make it one year. Took a 10,000 mile round trip from Michigan to west coast 18 years ago, hence 30,000 miles in 1 year. The 2nd cam that failed was only 4 years old/43,000 miles, so 14 years apart. They could give me 4 new cams, and it doesnt begin to cover my *** busting or sh.. in my engine or engine oil....

 

Had you gotten back to CM right after either one happened, they might have helped you in some way.
It doesn't sound like you did that, or at least you didn't say

 

Did you really wait 18 years to say anything or is something resurrecting this for you? If you want durability from a cammed engine, you need to make sure your cam is spec'd properly and that is has gentle lobes/ramp rates. Small cams last, that is why GM does that they do. Wanting durability is not reasonable and the bigger the cam, the truer this is. You also need to make sure you make valve springs a maintenance issue with anything more than a baby cam. The moment you turn a wrench modifying internals, you lose service life. I would have expected a guy that's been around here as long as you to know this stuff.

 

WOW! One would think any Cam Core would at least wear and resist like an OEM. I realize the higher RPMs would have an impact but still more would be expected from any performance cam. Sorry to hear cause down time, labor, and involved costs are reasons to be upset.

 

Uh, I DO know this stuff. I dont know what you know, and you dont know what I know. So don't question my knowledge, and I haven't, and won't, question yours. Please read my 1st post. Not just one, but TWO CM cams have had this issue. One was 18 years ago when it was less than 1 year old. The second cam was 4 years old and I just noted the second cam lobe failures 2 months ago. When the first one failed, it sucked, but I thought, hey, stuff happens. But when two fail, well, that is a bit different IMHO. Warranties mean little to me. When push comes to shove, damn few people will offer free replacement parts. Even if they did, they could offer me 4 new cams and it wont cover the *** busting I have had to go thru, or clean the sh.. in my oil. Ya know, if I was running a .700" lift cam, with 260°/270° duration, I'd look at this totally differently. But each cam had .600" lift, 232° duration, in an LS7, pretty tame for built LS motors. Plus, at 70 years old the vast majority of my engines life was spent at 2,200 rpm (70 mph), or less, because most driving was on the freeway. Once or twice per month-MAYBE-I'd take it up to 7,000rpm on a freeway on-ramp. That's it. On one trip to the strip, I made 3 passes last year. I've always liked CM cams. But I'm starting to question their lobes durability. I'll know more when I take the cam to the toolroom I worked in for 41 years. We have a Rockwell hardness tester there. I'll check the lobes for hardness, and report back. I'll also post pics of the latest cam. The first one is long gone, in a landfill somewhere.......

 

Wow that's an unfortunate turn of events.

IIRC Cam Motion had a Low Lash Solid Roller they'd durability test to ~28,000+ miles or so in a daily driver several years ago.

yellowbullet: high-mileage-low-lash-solid-rollers, Cam Motion see post #2

FWIW - ran an XER Comp Cam (224/224 .581/.581) for 15 years over ~130,000 miles with no issues. Had several sets of new valve springs etc. Properly set up performance cams can have decent durability.

 

I totally agree.

 

How many times in 43k miles did you change the valve springs? What came first, the chicken or the egg? Valvetrain instability causing the cam to go bad or the cam going bad all on it's own?

 

No spring change. @TurbobuickV6, who works at PAC and is a member here, told me that my .600" lift cam would be easy on my PAC duals. He told me if I had .650" lift, change springs at 25,000-30,000 miles. But with just .600" lift (.009" over stock), he said my springs would go at least 50,000 miles, maybe 75,000.

 

I’ve had multiple comp cams come out with chunks missing too. All different spec, and none super aggressive grinds. Everything is ****. I still grind and recommend comp cams - what else are you gonna do?

 

If you had a Cam that fell apart recently, then mentioning the one from 18 years ago is a moot point honestly. Literally had no positive added point to the matter than showing you recollect it because of boredom or just that salty over it. It adds zero anything to the problem here other than makes you out to be that prissy.

I've had several problems with Cams over the years from several manufacturers. Some were poorly spec'd, others were re-grinds with improper hardness. For the latter the guy who sold me them and told me to pretty much **** up a rope when I hardness tested them myself ended up with a terminal medical condition. The Lord works his ways..

 

Spring pressures, spring set-up, RPMs, correct pushrod lengths, proper oil type ...could be one or many things causing the issue.

 

I agree. Tony Mamo set up the first set of AFR heads. End of that story. Second set of heads, OEM LS7, were set up by Thomson Automotive (now LPE), a well respected engine builder, who also built the entire engine. Third set of same OEM LS7 heads set up by AHP. IDK where I coulda gone to get better labor. However, I haven't really gotten a response from anyone to answer my original question. I'm gonna post pics of cam later today, but testing for hardness might take a week or so. I'm NOT attacking CM. I AM looking for other members who've had issues with CM, that's all....

 

Please see my post with 7 pics in the Gen III internal engine section.....