Camshaft misery :(

[Zak33]

It never rains, it pours.

The Astra was in having its cam done last week....Dave (tobe trusted mechanic and quick driver) had the head off, the head was very moderately skimmed, and the Kent Cam went in.....new Jetex exhasust system, I did a bit of work on the inlet (Wednesday)and exhaust manifold last week, made sure all was smooth and shapely, while Dave was doing a normal days work in the land of MOT testing....and off I went back to t work the next day, happy in the knowledge that soon the little beast would be at least drivable......then we could start work on roll cages, interior removal etc.

Friday.....bad phone call

"Its slow.....its so slow its hurts " Now Dave is a big, hard hitting, no sh1t, proper bloke, and he does tease and wind me up sometimes, but you know when your mate is serious, don't you?

Not happy.....maybe I really should have got the vernier cam wheel....was gonna get one anyway, but first, wanted to see the thing in normal mode.....OK...a few billionths are off the head, but not enough to change the camshaft angle....and the cam will need to be timed proplerly.....BUT..it should still drive a treat.

Nope....not a treat....not at all......Fuel pressure regulator tweakage...its not helping.

Remember....this car was going really well with the default cam in it, WITH a mildly blown head gasket......and an old Vauxhall standard exhaust.....but we are now in a world of pain

Today..get the next of a set of sad phone calls.....

"This cam....what was it made of?....cream cheese?"

So the mystery begins.....and its LIVE....cos right now, I have no idea at all WHY the lobes on 7 out of 8 valves have TOTALLY worn away

and the followers (also new) are shafted

I will keep ya all updated....and cos its HExus.....I'll let you all join in and guess.....is it a bad install.......(I wont blame him, he's my mate, we all cock up) or is it a faulty cam ...or what else?

Ihaveto say though.....a bad install normally involves buggered valves, ruined head etc....the camshaft is normally fine...

this one is now decidedly secondhand.

Correct cam lube was used....timing was fine.....and theoil supply in the head is excelelent.....and this cam now looks like its done 100,000 hard miles....

its done 11

What ya think ?

[CocoPops]

Couldn't even hazard a guess mate, but do keep us informed.

[Tumble]

If that's happened, and you say it was a good install, maybe there's been a manufacturing fault and the wrong mix of whatever material they've made the cams out of has been processed. Probably something "innocent" like that. I'd certainly try to get replacements buck-shee, or your money back....

[RocketmanX]

Sorry to hear of your bad luck

I know how frustrating that can be.

Valve springs replaced?
Improper valve spring seat pressure ?

Hydraulic or solid ? Don't know Vauxhall's a bit.

Is that an overhead cam motor?

Sounds like the cam either was moved closer to the head (if it is an overhead valved engine) or the cams basecircle was too big.

Or revert to my first suggestion

There is a slight possibilty that the cam was not properly hardened to begin with, I've heard of that happening before.

[BiggehXP]

if it was a manufacturing fault, a similar thing happened with a rubbishrubbishrubbishrubbishLOAD (3000+) OZ wheels and they ALL had to be recalled and destroyed, so these things do happen!

[IainB]

Zak,

Is this one of the cams that has a funny running in procedure?
Somthing along the lines of x mins at y revs, followed by x mins at y revs?

Feel for you mate - a friend wiped out a brand new cam on his Chevy 350 by not following the correct procedure.

[jon bda]

Lack of lube to the cam?, was it all cleaned out after skimming?.

[Zak33]

ANNOUNCEMENT:

Kent Cams want it back ASAP...but wouldn't say why

I get a new one, new hydraulic lifters etc....

And a bloke I spoke too else-where said: Oh...maybe its from Kent Cams new factory in India..maybe it was crap quality

We...as they say....shall see

[Zak33]

Thank you guys...good advice.....

ROcketmanX....its nigh on impossible to get it too close to the followers/lifters, cos its a "fixed" position....but damn good guess.

Tumble....I think you may have it there my friend.and therefore BiggeXP is prob right too

Eazieb......what I thought....asked the question....nope, no running in time

Jonbda......nother cool guess, but the head is getting plenty of oil and the correct cam lube was used on build.

Luckily it aint life or death, cos we dont intend to run it until next year.....but exciting too...cos I wanna smoke this bitch up the road

[CocoPops]

That's interesting that Kent Cams want it back ASAP without saying why.

Good luck with it m8

[Zak33]

Originally posted by CocoPops
That's interesting that Kent Cams want it back ASAP without saying why.

Swhat I thought...they got a good rep.....dont want THAT tarnished....and you gotta see the sh1t in the sump of my car.....the oil is FULL of my camshaft


*sob......sob....piteous wailing noise*

[RocketmanX]

....and you gotta see the sh1t in the sump of my car.....the oil is FULL of my camshaft

Urrmmm... that sucks, more work than you planned on initaly it looks like

Good luck with the fix, hope you didn't lose any rod or crank bearings. Keepin my fingers crossed

BTW- I take it that is an overhead cam? What engine exactly- just curious to do some research on overhead cams and motors I know nothing about.

[Tumble]

Having only just started going into the workings of motors, it sounds to me like you're gonna have to strip the thing apart to clean out the engine if it's full of ickle bits of bent cams? espesh if it's in the oil and stuff