Cams scored. Fixable???

[Slippi84]

I had a journal go on my old head and it damaged my one cam from lack of oil . It's really only one part of the cam that got damaged and it's not the lobes. I want to know if anyone has ever heard of or knows if cams that suffer from scoring from journal damage can be remachined. Or if the damage from the journal going will affect the cams integrity or it's performance cause these cams are similar to 272's and I would dave myself a lot of money if they were still good.

 

[GTM]

I had a journal go on my old head and it damaged my one cam from lack of oil . It's really only one part of the cam that got damaged and it's not the lobes. I want to know if anyone has ever heard of or knows if cams that suffer from scoring from journal damage can be remachined. Or if the damage from the journal going will affect the cams integrity or it's performance cause these cams are similar to 272's and I would dave myself a lot of money if they were still good.

It you have a micrometer or digital vernier caliper you can measure the damaged vs the undamaged areas. I have used a whetstone for removing minor damage and 1000-1500 paper. If you have any pictures it might help. You can take the cam to a machine shop and ask for an opinion.

Cheers,
GTM

 

[steel_3d]

A machine shop should be able to polish them on the same machine they use to polish cranks. Shouldn't cost much. If the scoring doesn't come out with polishing you're probably out of luck. Unless you wanna be ghetto, undersize that one journal until it cleans up, and let it run with a huge oil clearance. Maybe the other journals will support the cam well enough??

 

[GTM]

A machine shop should be able to polish them on the same machine they use to polish cranks. Shouldn't cost much. If the scoring doesn't come out with polishing you're probably out of luck. Unless you wanna be ghetto, undersize that one journal until it cleans up, and let it run with a huge oil clearance. Maybe the other journals will support the cam well enough??

Machine shops unless they have posted prices for specific jobs charge by the hour with a 1 hour minimum. Addressing only the score to take any high spots so they don't catch metal fines and tear more metal is a lot better than polishing the whole journal which will make it undersize rather than just adjacent to the score. If you are really brave you can lap .0005"-.001" off the cap when you have an undersize journal. You can check your work with Plastigage so you don't get it tight. If you get it tight then you dimple both mating faces. If everything is undersize then hard chrome plating will bring it back to spec.

Cheers,
GTM

 

[Slippi84]

Yeah these cams are going to good will it's not worth the risk I thought I would just ask to see how risky it is and just from the responses and the things you have to do I can tell it's not worth it.

 

[steel_3d]

If it cleans up with a simple polish there's no risk really. If the gouges are deep then it's probably not worth it.

 

[Slippi84]

Yeah I wish I could get this picture on here but this inst just a deep sract this thing took a layer off where the journal was it aint pretty . I think it was just wishful thinking on my part.

 

[steel_3d]

Go to http://www.tinypic.com/ upload the pic and paste the address in here.