JRCivic1

I have had an H22A4 powered EG coupe since 2002. I love it. It is a rod/piston engine with minor head work, cams and a high-end header. With Crower 3 cams, it made 222 WHP. About 3000 miles ago, I switched to Skunk2 Pro 2 cams and the power went up slightly to 229 WHP. The car has recently started to stall during warm up, so I pulled the valve cover to investigate. What I found is worn lobes on the Exhaust camshaft only. Unfortunately, this is the second time that I have witnessed this issue personally with Pro cams, so they will NOT be going back into the engine.

So here is the dilemma:

Although the Crower's were awesome and I have no complaints there... I don't want to go BACK 6-7 HP in output, so what camshafts would/have made equal power to Pro 2's on a pump-gas daily street driven EG ???

pentaq

Considered JUN cams? They seem to be quite agressive.

spoolinlude

I'd be interested in what your valves were set at.... bet they're too tight.

snobordboy

Also, what oil are you using, and what springs/ retainers to go with those cams?

98vtec

Its not the cams. I can tell you that much. If you are using a low zinc oil, you better move to a higher quality oil. Ever since switching to royal purple, I have yet to have this issue. Its easy to blame the cams but its not them. This happened to me on crower cams running Amsoil on crower valvetrain which were incredibly noisy from the get go. But that was back when i didnt understand what setting of the valvetrain meant. Just dropped them in and tuned it. 1500 miles later the rockers and cams were done. Ive seen it happen with OEM cams as well. How many miles are on the head?

Btw, the pro2s should have killed the crower cams when setup properly and given you have the supporting mods to allow them to work.

What valve train are you using? Have you tested valve spring seat pressure?

JRCivic1

Pentag, yes I have considered JUN cams... and that may be the way that I go.

Spoolin, the valve lash was set at 6 and 7 thousandths (IN, EX), which is 1 thou tighter than Skunk2's current installation instructions call for, but there is NO wear on the Intake cam.

Snoboredboy, I use Genuine Honda 5w30. Springs and Retainers are Crower with the 87093D Ti-17 retainers... and yes, the rocker arms have been modified to clear the retainer edge.

98vtec, I used to use Valvoline conventional 5w30. I am sure the Pro 2's would have made more power, but they were never degreed... I dropped them in and used the "quick cam gear" settings that Tony/Brian @ Skunk2 suggested.

I currently have the power train out of the car while it is being painted (including the engine bay), and I thought I would degree them while the engine was out. Very disappointing though that the cam is damaged. I have not tested valve spring seat pressure. The Crower's were in the car for more than 20K miles, and they look fine... so I really didn't give any thoughts to the valve train being the issue.

98vtec

You need to be using a high zinc content volume which i highly doubt that valvoline is. Most of the shelf oils remove the zinc due to emissions i believe. Cant remember the exact reason why companies started lowering the content off the top of my head but its not a good thing for "stressed out" engines.

the quick settings are fine for most engines that dont have high compression. the degreeing isnt going to pick up any power. you need to know your piston to valve and valve to valve clearance so you can play with the gears on the dyno and know how far you can go before running into trouble with valves crossing.

the crower cam is VERY different from the Pro series from skunk.

98vtec

http://www.crower.com/media/pdf/2008b/166-180.pdf

your part number for your spring is 68184. Check the install height and reference to that chart

JRCivic1

98vtec, no changes were made to the valves or valve seats between the time the Crower 3's were run and the Skunk2 Pro 2's were installed. Can you explain why you feel the install height could be an issue when no damage occurred to the Crower cams which were run better than ten times longer ???

As an aside, the first set of Skunk2 Pro series cams that I have seen with this type of damage were Pro 1's that we tested for Skunk2 in a turbo charged "B" series back when the cams were first released. In less than 5000 miles, the car was missing in cylinder 3 and it idled like a Subaru. Compression was perfect, spark existed and the fuel injector worked perfectly... turns out, one primary lobe was completely worn off the exhaust cam in cylinder 3 and a second lobe was better than 90% worn off in cylinder 2. After contacting Skunk2, they suggested that the blame was the intense heat created near the exhaust cam from the turbo and turbo manifold... there was no burned or "cooked on" oil residue inside the exhaust side of the head.

To me, it appears that the same problem is occurring in my engine, and there is certainly no heat problem... I just have caught it much earlier than the last guy.