hi guys thought i would ask for some advice, a friend of mine purchaced a set of skunk2 pro series stage 2 cams, he had them in the motor (jdm b18c) for 1200 miles and started to hear a strange knocking noise coming from the top end so he disassembled the head and found that the cam loabs had worn away, the followers are also damaged. has anyone else had this problem and does anyone know what has caused this to happen?




you can see the wear in the pics.

 

Can you post pics of the followers?

Also, what valvetrain was being run? and what type of oil, regularity of changes, etc.?

 

user error, improper installation is my first guess

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Skunk.Werks &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">user error, improper installation is my first guess</TD></TR></TABLE>

By what, not using TQ wrench?

 

i thought i heard of this problem on the ep3

 

Cam journals look worse than the cam lobes. Were the cam caps and cam journals on the head damaged?

 

Was retainer to stem seal clearance checked?

 

were the cam caps and rails were installed properly and to the correct torque?
valve lash adjusted according to skunk2?
using Pro series valvetrain?
what oil?
use engine assembly lube on the rockers and cams during installation?

i would have said bad rockers, but the cam journals are worn as well and the wear is on both cams and not just the exhaust side.

on the bottom picture it shows wear on the base circle of the cam. starvation?

 

Unfortunately, skunk.werks is right.

 

good thing you caught the problem. cams do have a tendancy to stop eventually

 

cams were installed properlly, correct torque settings, fresh oil between cam/cam caps, running pro series springs and retainers with new oem guies, seals and valves. i dont have pics of the followers as there away to machine shop to be recon'd. engine oil was brand new castrol when cams were installed, im not sure what the valve clearences were set at and the machine shop that inspected the followers say oil starvation is not to blame, they say the cams are soft?

thanks for your help so far guys.

 

i had a similar experience with my pro 1 cams after a couple hundred miles...ate the rockers,i figured the supertech springs may have been to stiff for the cams but i see you are using sk2 springs.....the only cam that was eaten was the exhaust side on my car and it was just the lobes...

 

that one lobe is far more worn than the others, and the journals look like starvation.

i had my cams break after 5 years of good, hard abuse, but they didn't wear. just got brittle and the intake cam broke in half. luckily the motor wasn't damaged very much. some rocker wear and slight valve tap. just needed a couple valves, and rockers. back up and running.

if the springs bind, or lost motions lock for some reason, that can cause the cam to break, but not typically wear like that. but unless you got a set of cams that maybe aren't actually s2 or a set that were made by them during a time where they tried out different suppliers of blanks that were of lower quality, the rockers usually will have pad wear before the cam would wear down.

 

if you say the cam was soft....
did you break the cam in before beating on it????

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by R3DxLIN3 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">did you break the cam in before beating on it????</TD></TR></TABLE>

I've never heard of this being a requirement by any camshaft builder.

 

Gotta make sure the rails and caps are on the right way. Points toward the timing belt. Make sure your timing belt isn't too tight. It could be your head isn't getting enough oil but i'm not sure completely on that.

 

some valve train out there is way too stiff. i have the same cams in my b20r no problems vlave las is 7in 8 ex

 

Its not always the installers fault. We have had two sets of cams that have done this. Hit up Tony from Skunk he is a cool guy and im sure will work with you if you got the receipt for your purchase. We used the same Valvetrain the second go around and the cams been running perfect. Sometimes theres material failure nothing in lifes perfect. Good luck and hope it works out for you.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by 98vtec &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">
were the cam caps and rails were installed properly and to the correct torque?
valve lash adjusted according to skunk2?
using Pro series valvetrain?
what oil?
use engine assembly lube on the rockers and cams during installation?

i would have said bad rockers, but the cam journals are worn as well and the wear is on both cams and not just the exhaust side.

on the bottom picture it shows wear on the base circle of the cam. starvation?</TD></TR></TABLE>

thats what i was thinking. If its wearing there i would think either like you said oil starvation in some way or improper torquing of the cam caps or something maybe .... but it looks like its pretty consistant across the journal so probly not.

 

does anyone seem to have any idling problems with the pro 2's

i know the old skool II's dont have a problem.