My friend just bought Skunk2 stage 3 cams for his B18C6 (EuDM C5).
He replaced old Skunk2 stage2, thats all... engine has about 3000miles since built and worked fine until now.
Cam broke while launching the engine, but of course engine didnt start.
What could be the reason?

Looks like something did not want to spin. Distributor perhaps?

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by b19coupe &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Looks like something did not want to spin. Distributor perhaps?</TD></TR></TABLE>

i would say the distributor locked up also

as far as I know distributor after damage looks like new...
Could this damage happen because of weak cam material?
How is it possible to do something wrong while just "swapping" cams?

Looks like the distributor was not installed back on right

The damage on the dist. end could also be from after the cam broke, the cam tends to walk from side to side in the journals after they break and it may of pulled out of the dist. and them just binded up and caused that damage to the end. I would say you over rev'd the motor... but who knows really, people never give the whole story

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by itr_18 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">as far as I know distributor after damage looks like new...
Could this damage happen because of weak cam material?
How is it possible to do something wrong while just "swapping" cams?</TD></TR></TABLE>

many possibilities of doing something wrong while "just" swapping cams depending on who was doing the work. i wouldn't be so quick to blame the construction of the actual cam before double checking what was involved in the installation and or the situation prior to the cam "breaking"

i ran skunk2s in my civic for over 2 years with no issues at all.

a quick cam job and result into a quick broken sk2 shaft. was it properly lubed and was the dizzy installed correct..etc etc.. looks to me like the dizzy might have caused it....... i mean how can a cam break in half and overspin the dizzy side cam to actually HURT the notches.. it would have to be the other way around..

What about cam rails. Could possibly have been over torqued?

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by 1bad-eg &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">What about cam rails. Could possibly have been over torqued?</TD></TR></TABLE>

overtorqing cam caps will only cause the bolts to break off, it wouldnt cause the caps to be any tighter on the cam.

i have also had a skunk cam break before. it was during install, while tightening the cam gear bolt. barely made it to tq spec and the end of the cam snapped off. i sent it back to skunk and they sent me a new set. this was on an h series, they told me they havent had any problems w/ the h cams but they did used to have a big prob w/ b cams breaking back in the day.

your cam looks like the dist caused the damage. i have seen people install dist 180 out before and bolt them down like that. that would have deffinately caused the cam to break like that. did the dist go on w/o any problems?

When they were installed were they tightened per honda torqueing sequence? Ive seen people install cams and not tighten them in the correct sequence and break them just like that.

Its just strange to me - my friend did the cam swap in HONDA authorised service, how could they make something improperly?

I've seen that happen with a stock h22 cam after a buddy installed the distributor incorectly and the car simply wouldn't start. He looked for the cause of the problem for hours till he decided to check the cams and there it was lookin just like the one in the pic.

....Disregard my post.


Modified by D-Rob at 12:26 PM 3/7/2006

looks like you in stalled the dizzy 180 out, and forced it on with the bolts. definatly looks like installation error.

If not the distributor being installed wrong, although with the cam cap on he would have had to mash it in there with a hammer since its keyway is offset. Another possibility could be coil bind on the valve springs. Obviously the skunk3's will have more lift than the 2's and will change the amount of allotted movement in the springs

But its impossible to mount distributor wrong - i think... Distributor looks like NEW, like nothing happen..

My friend took the head with cams to lab tests on univercity to get info what might happen and what caused the damage. Ill let you know what they discovered soon.

MORE PICS...







Modified by itr_18 at 3:35 PM 3/8/2006

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by itr_18 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

</TD></TR></TABLE>
Were the cam caps installed and torqued as shown? One of them is backwards.

my friend says that pics were taken just after the cam broke. Hmmm that might be the reason of cam failture... heheh some kind of idiot must have mounted cams

Hi guys I am a person to whom it happend
My friend who is a dealer skunk2 in Poland call to skunk2 ,and people from skunk2 were very nice and polite to us
And saind that they will help us and send one new instake cam
I will write later because the discussion is in progress


Modified by krystianitr at 9:51 AM 3/8/2006


Modified by krystianitr at 9:52 AM 3/8/2006

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by itr_18 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">my friend says that pics were taken just after the cam broke. Hmmm that might be the reason of cam failture... heheh some kind of idiot must have mounted cams </TD></TR></TABLE>Yeah, one of the holders does look like it's on backwards.

Pictures were taken after taking off cam cap and cam cap might have been placed like this for taking foto. Cam didn't brake between 2nd and 3 rd cams cap ,but between 3rd and 4th

krystianitr &lt;-- thats the guy that has broken cam in this thread - talk to him

Most distributors I have seen put on backwards, break the ears on the distributor. Arent they softer material than a camshaft?

You caqn see where he had the distributor installed 180 out of phase .. i have seen this happen at least 6 times before, the most recent was 3 weeks ago.. You can see where he had to force the key way down . look at the galling on the dist keyway.. 100% installer error..