civicb18c

ok well basically there's a knick the size of the tip of a regular pen and next to that knick it looks like a straight hairline crack. im 100%sure if its a crack or just minorly scratched. you can kind of see the knick from a foot away and feel it with ur finger nail.
this is just 1 cam lobe and its on the intake cam. is there some way i can find out if its a scratch or a crack? and maybe regrind that cam lobe w/o effecting the duration or left a lot?

my situation is i bought them used from a friend or what i thought was a friend and it was a quick exchange at night because i thought i could trust him. he quickly wiped them down and i took a fast glance and gave him money, went up stairs and saw the knick. i called him back and he told me ok well get it check out and if anything i'll give you your money back. couple days later talked to him and he said "a deals a deal man, thats your problem" dont really want start alot of mess but if it comes to extreme measures then i think i'll have to.

what do you guys think i should do about the cams would it affect the performance any if it was just the minor knick and it wasnt a crack just a small scratch?

civicb18c

any input?

tjbizzo

Your cam purchase sounds like a back alley crack deal, lol. Are the nick and scratch on the circular back side of the lobe or are they somewhere on the peak? The hairline crack might be a kind of fatigue failure called spalling. You definitely don't want to use a cam with a nick like that because it will quickly destroy your rocker or lifter, which will lead to other (perhaps complete engine?) failures. Call around to local machine shops and see if they know of anyone who can repair it properly. Unless it's a really special cam, it would probably be just as cheap to replace it.

Use this as a lesson to always inspect parts thoroughly before buying them.

NRN GT4

First of all get new freinds, a freind would not do that to you. Even if this "freind" doesnt know much about automobiles then thats still fucked up.
As far as the cam, pics would help however; if you can feel this scratch then I wouldnt use the cam(my personal opinion) becuase this can damage the cam surfaces in the head or rockers and cause damage later. (entire engine) IF its a crack dont even think about using it eventually it will fail(buyed time).

Repairs can be done in most cases but I have never known anyone to use a repaired cam and stray away from it personally because I would hate to lose my built motor or, a motor that was perfectly fine before the cam becuase I thought it was repaired properly and it wasnt. Thats up to you.

I would through the cam through the window of the said friend and chalk it up as a loss monitarily and freindship wise.

Bulldogg83

Let me explain something. I had GSR cams in my setup and after spinning a bearing and having the motor replaced the cams were damaged. At 17lbs of boost I put down 332.1whp/239.7 ftlb of torque with power falling off nasty after 7500rpm. Put some new GSR Cams in and without changing anything made 372.0whp/256.2 ftlb of torque. So, yes, any damage to a cam will cause a power loss. Take a look-->

civicb18c

man i just dont quite know exactly what to do because this was bought through a friend that bought it from thomas at jspek who bought it through chamois at autologic. thomas supposely think there was a knick there before but dont remember.......chamois had no problem running these cams....

Bulldogg83

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by civicb18c &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">man i just dont quite know exactly what to do because this was bought through a friend that bought it from thomas at jspek who bought it through chamois at autologic. thomas supposely think there was a knick there before but dont remember.......chamois had no problem running these cams....</TD></TR></TABLE>

Well if it helps I personally know Chamois and talk to Chamois on a regular basis. I know that they would have never sold anyone a bogus came. How long ago was it purchased? I have a GSR Intake Cam that I will sell you for cheap. Talk to your friend and see if he would split the cost with you, and let me know if you'd want it.

NRN GT4

let me help you on this a little more, you have proof (thanx bulldog) that f***up cams give f***up results. Please understand that just becuase someone may have ran them then obviously they felt luckier than you.
Lets put this a diffrent way, would you buy rod bolts from someone that already used them? You may but if you inspected them and noticed that the threads on two of the rod bolts were spaced further apart than the other bolts would you use the spaced out ones probably not.
I wouldnt for sure. I have a damaged head that was fixed becuase I was in the same boat as you are now and the same that bulldog was in afterwards.I was going to sell the head and the cams but they make a better display in my apartment than it would on a motor. And I have wanted to sell it but would never put someone through what I went through.

Oh bulldog the cams and the rockers I offered were not the same ones, they were virgins.

Bulldogg83

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by NRN GT4 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">let me help you on this a little more, you have proof (thanx bulldog) that f***up cams give f***up results. Please understand that just becuase someone may have ran them then obviously they felt luckier than you.
Lets put this a diffrent way, would you buy rod bolts from someone that already used them? You may but if you inspected them and noticed that the threads on two of the rod bolts were spaced further apart than the other bolts would you use the spaced out ones probably not.
I wouldnt for sure. I have a damaged head that was fixed becuase I was in the same boat as you are now and the same that bulldog was in afterwards.I was going to sell the head and the cams but they make a better display in my apartment than it would on a motor. And I have wanted to sell it but would never put someone through what I went through.

Oh bulldog the cams and the rockers I offered were not the same ones, they were virgins.
</TD></TR></TABLE>

Gotcha. Good advise.