broke cam shaft bearing

[pj91gsx]

I snaped a camshaft bearing cap into two piece. What are my options to do next? I just rebuilt this head and ported and polished it. Today I made a newbie mistake of letting my brother tighten down the camshaft bearings. and two were on backwards. I didnt relize until he told me it was backward that I broke it. I was running it down with the bolt. It felt like it was going, then poped.

ill post pictures later

 

[1992awdlaser]

Get one off another head and have a machine shop check to make sure all of them for that cam are in spec. If not have them line hone/bore it.

Or get another head.

 

[pj91gsx]

Get one off another head and have a machine shop check to make sure all of them for that cam are in spec. If not have them line hone/bore it.

Or get another head.

thanks for the reply. I have 5 heads. so I will grab one in hope of it working out. I know if its not right then it will lock up the camshaft. I had mixed up my bearing caps for two heads, I have the sets separated but found that they are very close to fitting both heads, but i found that one head had much better fitment for the caps. so I put it on this one and broke it. I just installed the head, does this mean I will have to pull it or is there a chance it will fit right in?

 

[SnowBird]

I dont see how it broke even though it was on backwards. You said you were running it down with the head. Did you compress your lifters/lash adjusters? Or were you smashing the cam down with the cap? Just makin sure, if you compress them first there shouldnt be any "running them down with a bolt" you should be able to press the cap all the way down with your hand.

 

[pj91gsx]

I dont see how it broke even though it was on backwards. You said you were running it down with the head. Did you compress your lifters/lash adjusters? Or were you smashing the cam down with the cap? Just makin sure, if you compress them first there shouldnt be any "running them down with a bolt" you should be able to press the cap all the way down with your hand.

yea just a newbie mistake. I was rushing to get this done because im trying to get it sold so I can work on my own car. Ill make sure its right before it leaves.

 

[SnowBird]

So did you compress them or not? The manual doesnt say you have to, but I have found that you do have to, your car will tick like crazy till they pressurize though.

 

[pj91gsx]

compressing them had nothing to do with my problem. i just filled up the lifter hole with oil and pushed them down.

 

[pj91gsx]

here is what i am looking at. I just bought a whole set of cam bearings. But my question is. If the bearing fits perfect in I should have to do any machine work? And do the dowell pin control the alignment mostly?

 

[Defiant]

You'll need to have the cam bearing caps and the head align-honed. Your brother will be happy to pick up the tab.

 

[1992awdlaser]

Like defiant said, you will have to have them honed. The only way you wont is if you found out what the factory specs were and measured all of them to make sure they were good. And had a way to make sure they were lined up perfect with each other. Machine shops are the only place I know of that have the specs handy.

 

[pj91gsx]

You'll need to have the cam bearing caps and the head align-honed. Your brother will be happy to pick up the tab.

thats ok. I tightened the bolt. Ill pay for it. no big deal, my friends dad owns the machine shop. I just dont want to put the head again. Ill mic the clearance and see what I get. this sucks. this isnt even my car, I just volunteered to fix it. Resolved!

 

[Defiant]

It's not the clearance, it's the axial alignment. For all practical purposes, it's not measurable.

 

[pj91gsx]

It's not the clearance, it's the axial alignment. For all practical purposes, it's not measurable.

ok. my friend told me he didn't have anything to hone the head so I may have to go some where else.

To resolve this post, I took a cam cap from another head tightened it on the head with the cam inside to see if it locks up. It did lock up so I took the cap off and marked sharper all over the seat of the cam bearing cap then torqued it and moved the cam. By doing that I could see where the cap was hiting, so I sanded it and repeated the process until it wasnt hiting anymore. It worked out great for me.

 

[Guitarthrash3r]

Did that seriously work? Sounds a little risky. And I am wondering how much a line hone would cost.

 

[daplatano91]

Did that seriously work? Sounds a little risky. And I am wondering how much a line hone would cost.

Way to kick a tomb stone. The thread is 4 years old my friend.

 

[KAOI]

It was his first post... Give him a break hahaha