I have a friend with a del sol with the b16a3 engine in it and we were, among other things, installing an STR cam seal but when we took the cam journal off we saw that both the cam and the journal were scratching against each other (friction damage?) and there was some minute metal shaving debri in the oil around it... my questions are this: would this be the cause of an annoying ticking noise he's been having for a while now? and what are the possible avenues to solve this problem other than replacing the journals and cams?

 

I wouldn't reuse that if I were you. But don't know if that's the reason behind the ticking noise, might be something else...

 

Well he's driving it around like that right now and withoput problems, just that ticking noise, but performance remains unchanged.

 

Was there ever head work done? It sounds like either an oil passage isnt flowing like it should, or the cam cap bolts are too tight.

 

Yeah he had the rocker arms replaced a while back... Do you know what the torque specs are for the cap bolts?