Is this cam journal toast?

[Marc91GSX]

Ok so I searched and this is the only thread I found that somewhat addressed my question; unfortunately, it did not answer my question and felt that resurrecting a 7+ year old thread would not resolve my issue either.

Now for my problem, I just decided to re-start a DSM project that I put on the back burner years ago and I pulled one of my spare heads out of storage to clean it up and look into upgrading the valves, springs, and retainers. When I pulled the exhaust cam off of the head I found this mark on the #1 journal.

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Is that nick going to affect anything or can I just clean it up so that there are not any sharp edges?

Another area of concern, something I've never seen on a head before were what appeared to be cracks and missing material on the exhaust side. Are these normal?

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Thanks for the help guys.

 

[talonalex92]

The picture of the journal is hard to tell really. Can you feel this nick with your nail? And I would say the head should be fine with a re surface.

 

[Marc91GSX]

The picture of the journal is hard to tell really. Can you feel this nick with your nail? And I would say the head should be fine with a re surface.

You can feel the nick but it doesn't feel in sharper than the other edges on the cam journal. I'm mostly concerned about the fact that the journal's surface area is now smaller than the nick because that can be smoothed out without really changing the ID of the journal area.

The other areas I was concerned that they may be a sign that the head has been surfaced before and that maybe something has been done wrong.

 

[talonalex92]

Well, if its a minimal nick I would probably polish it out and not worry too much about it, just be careful to keep it smooth and true throughout. As far as the head goes, I wouldn't worry too much about it, especially where its located on the surface. Those dings could have came about from so many things. If it were somewhere close to the fire rings or a coolant/oil galley I would look into it, but that close to the edge of the head, I wouldn't loose sleep over it.

 

[Marc91GSX]

Well, if its a minimal nick I would probably polish it out and not worry too much about it, just be careful to keep it smooth and true throughout. As far as the head goes, I wouldn't worry too much about it, especially where its located on the surface. Those dings could have came about from so many things. If it were somewhere close to the fire rings or a coolant/oil galley I would look into it, but that close to the edge of the head, I wouldn't loose sleep over it.

Thanks for the help, I think I'll have the machine shop go over the journal when they resurface it just to be sure.

 

[BogusSVO]

First pic just a light touch with a sand paper roll used in porting will fix that journal, all will be fine.

2nd pic the chunk of casting missing it will not affect anything, it is outside the HG.

The surface finish looks rough, even for a composite HG

 

[Marc91GSX]

First pic just a light touch with a sand paper roll used in porting will fix that journal, all will be fine.

2nd pic the chunk of casting missing it will not affect anything, it is outside the HG.

The surface finish looks rough, even for a composite HG

It's going to get a full port and polish as well as oversized valves, I just wanted to make sure it was worth spending the money on this head. Thanks for the help.