My exhaust CAM ground away to nothing

[SnowBird]

My car ran fine, just smoked a little. I changed the valve seals and put everything back together. The car kept stalling and I found out the exhaust cam was hard as hell to turn with a wrench.

I took off the caps and the cam was disgusting to say the least, the only part of the cam undamaged were the bearings at the ends. My head is ruined and so is my cam. Now, I mixed up the rocker arms on the exhaust side, but dont know if this would do this much damage. I torqued everything down the same as I ever have, and have had my timing belt off and cams out several times so Im thinking maybe the rocker arms did mess it up.

People swap out cams for used ones all the time so I dont see what would have happened even if my rocker arms got mixed up. Im confused. Help.

 

[9 T GSX]

Sounds like you have something clogged somewhere in the oil system.Might want to drain the oil and see if there is any metal flakes in it. Mixing up the roller arms wouldnt hurt anything.Could be possible the cam wasnt sitting flat in the head and when tightened down the cam caps got chewed up.

 

[ilikespeeding]

We need pics.

 

[SnowBird]

Sounds like you have something clogged somewhere in the oil system.Might want to drain the oil and see if there is any metal flakes in it. Mixing up the roller arms wouldnt hurt anything.Could be possible the cam wasnt sitting flat in the head and when tightened down the cam caps got chewed up.

There will be flakes for sure. There is about an eighth inch of cam still in the journals so the holes are jampacked with metal. Plus the engine has only 150 miles on it so its flaking as well. Im hoping something just did get clogged in the head. Im gonna get a bare head and transfer all the guts from my current one.

Sorry no camera, I lost that when I broke up with my last girlfriend.WTF

 

[9 T GSX]

Maybe the problem wasnt in the head but in the block,main/rod bearing might have been going,oil pump not lubricated enough when rebuilt. just some thoughts.

 

[1992awdlaser]

My guess would be that you didn't put the cam caps back on in the exact order they came off.

 

[jake247]

There will be flakes for sure. There is about an eighth inch of cam still in the journals so the holes are jampacked with metal. Plus the engine has only 150 miles on it so its flaking as well. Im hoping something just did get clogged in the head. Im gonna get a bare head and transfer all the guts from my current one.

Sorry no camera, I lost that when I broke up with my last girlfriend.WTF

rent from walmart, return when done.

 

[GS-T_Newboost]

same thing happened when my buddys melling oil pump came apart. the turbo blew so we figured thats why we lost oil psi. we put the new one still no oil psi so then we found out that now the new turbo needs a rebuild and he needs a head and oilpump

 

[SnowBird]

My guess would be that you didn't put the cam caps back on in the exact order they came off.

Damnit. This is what I would tell somebody too. Trust me they were in the right place. Mine are still numbered E2, E3, and so on , I kept them in order in an egg crate also, and doubled check before I took it apart again. That is why Im so confused. Im getting a bare head this weekend, what a joke. Im blaming it on myself.

 

[absolute_DSM]

Damnit. This is what I would tell somebody too. Trust me they were in the right place. Mine are still numbered E2, E3, and so on , I kept them in order in an egg crate also, and doubled check before I took it apart again. That is why Im so confused. Im getting a bare head this weekend, what a joke. Im blaming it on myself.

Regardless of what happened to the head, I would be worried about the lower end now. You know there is metal flakes all throughout your engine.

 

[JusMX141]

....and turbo.

I rebuild piles of turbos that are full of metal from bad engines. Your turbo is probably fine at this point, but it will be junk in 10 miles if you drive the car once you get the engine problems worked out.