OBD1 B18C engine. All of the narrow primary rocker arm pads look like this. I've seen one engine with more wear and one with less. What is normal?

This is a jdm engine that had "average of 25k miles". The cams have nearly all of the nitriding still on them and they look good.

(The lines on the pad that run lengthwise down the rocker arm are from oil I tried to wipe off with my finger)

 

If there is a noticable groove on the sides of the wear marks, then it would appear the cam is going too far against the rocker.

EDIT: Here is a pic of what I am talking about:



But if there isn't really a groove, you should have nothing to worry about.

Stock cams and valvetrain?

 

Definately a groove there, probably around .003" or so.

I just pulled this apart. It was a stock engine.

 

hey was wondering if you can get away by sanding it and polishing the rocker arms.

 

no

 

It's certianly debatable. I've known several that had to do this and get by with it. The arguement is that you can't achieve the original radius and dimentions after sanding.

Well, I'm actually doing this right now as I see that it would be better to run a new cam on a dimentionally imperfect pad than one that has a sharp edge. For $1120, new ones are obviously out of the question.