Why won't my exhaust cam turn...Long

[RossY]

Alright so i was putting a rebuilt head on my car and got everything put together and started the car only to hear what seemed like midgets with jack hammers trying to get out of the valve cover. I let the car idle for a very long time as I thought it was the lifters not having oil in them since it was rebuilt. That didn't help Sooo, I took the VC off and noticed that some of the cam caps were mixed up and not in the correct positions.

So i put them in the correct line up and started the car again and the tapping had diminished but was still loud. So i took another look and noticed some of the lifters weren't very stiff at all so i replaced them with lifters from my old head. Started the car and there was still a ticking noise.

I took another look and decided to replace the cam caps with the ones that were from my old head as well since they were in better condition. After tightening them down and making sure they were in the correct spot i tried turning the cam and couldn't. When i loosen the cam caps a little i can turn the cam again. So now im trying to figure out why my cam is seized up. Is it because the cam caps were mixed up when i started the car and that somehow messed up the cam? Im currently using the old cam and cam caps together in this head because i thought this would be better than using the caps from the rebuilt head.

I might try putting the old cam caps on tommorow to see if I can turn the cam with those but im afraid something got messed up and i hope you guys can help me figure it out.

 

[RoasT BeeF]

You can NOT use the caps from your old head on this one. Cam caps are not swappable.

How long was the car ran with the original caps in the wrong order? This can ruin the cam, caps, or both. The only way this can be fixed is to have the head line honed. I would take it back to the place that rebuilt it and bi*** them out. They should fix it or give you a new head.

 

[RossY]

the car was on for like 1 minute or so with the caps in the wrong order. I did some searching last night and did find that the caps were not swappable. Luckily i did not try to crank the engine, only turn the cam by hand. Today i'm going to put the old caps back on and hope that my ticking is gone since I replace most of the lifters.

***Update***
Put the old caps back on and everything is good. thanks for the reply. I had read in an earlier post that someone had gotten new caps for their dsm and that gave me the implication that they were all the same, but after searching and then having you reply and verify, I found that they are NOT the same and it takes a lot of money to get new caps to properly fit.

Thanks