head junked from cam caps

[1Gina2G]

I took my head to a machine shop for a resurfacing, when they started taking everything off to remove the camshafts, they noticed that the intake camshaft valley was worn out really badly. The main cam cap closest to the intake camgear, and the next intake cam cap (in the 'valley'). They said this head is now unrepairable, but I just wanted to figure out how it actually wore out. The guy at the machine shop said the belt could've been to tight and/or some dirt debris in there durring installation. I had somebody else put together the head, so entirely possible. He was also saying that the camcaps could have been put on backwords. Was hoping to here more theories?
I don't think it could've been an oil problem seeing how its actually the exact spot where the motor oil pours into the head. some pics-

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undereath the intake camcaps, the 2 most worn out, blackend

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The closest, most worn out cap

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same cap

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the end of the exhaust side perfectly fine.

I don't know if this will help any but this is a pic I had on the forums for something else but it was exactly how the camcaps were bolted on before they took them, off, not sure how to really tell if its backwards or not.

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[obsidian]

See if you can't get a higher quality picture. All of the arrows on the caps should be facing the same direction, I believe the arrows point to the outside edge of the head.

 

[jimbob_843]

Maybe debri in the oil. Or maybe someone over torqued the caps?

 

[BogusSVO]

Good chance there was old trash in the oil galley of those cam towers, since the rest did not get scored up.

The head was off before? Was it washed at a machine shop? if so I would say the grime was washed down the galley and blocked the oil ports.

This is the reason why the oil galley plugs need to be removed.

Looks like you have Ti retainers and aftermarket springs. make sure to keep these parts to install on the replacement head.

 

[1Gina2G]

Good chance there was old trash in the oil galley of those cam towers, since the rest did not get scored up.

The head was off before? Was it washed at a machine shop? if so I would say the grime was washed down the galley and blocked the oil ports.

This is the reason why the oil galley plugs need to be removed.

Looks like you have Ti retainers and aftermarket springs. make sure to keep these parts to install on the replacement head.

This head was taken to a machine shop and had everthing cleaned out and resurfaced using a belt sander by somebody else, the guy who I bought the car from. I had someone who I thought was a knowledgeable friend put together the head, and torque it to the block.

I took the head off to get it checked out at first(thought a valve was slighly bent from a previous time-jump) , then you noticed and let me know that belt surfacing is not the proper surface for these heads, and that milling brings the true proper finish after the oil port mod

I brought it to the machine shop, where the head was deemed non-rebuildable because of camshaft journel being worn out.

would you say that all the plausible or typical ways of the camshaft journels wearing out as they did for me have been mentioned in this thread already? I just want to especially make sure that mistake won't happen again, was going to ship out my core, and whatever is re-useable in the head and purchase an assembled head, and torque it on the block myself. I like the idea of assembling the head myself but at the same time I really don't want to make this head my first head...if that makes since

 

[BogusSVO]

Yes, there are only a few reasons for a head to fail like that. trash in the oil or lack of oil.

As long as you had good oil pressure before, and can rule out a weak oil pump.

This was #1 intake cam cap, that is the furthest from the oil supply.

The oil flows to the head from the #4 cyl exhaust head bolt hole.


Is there any way you can measure the depth of the oil trough in the head?

 

[kthackst]

Same thing happened to my buddies car. Exact same cam journal location.