okay guys, only my second k-series to tear into and I just yanked a A3 outta my brothers 04 rsx base. was driving normal until it jumped timing and died,

was pulling the head to check/replace bent valves because it jumped almost a half turn on the E cam, I wasn't sure if it was interference or not and he was paying me so I just pulled it.

after pulling the cams I saw this:


coming to you guys to check and see what might have caused this because frankly im stumped, damage is worse at the transmission side to hardly any at all at the cam gear except for the I cam. some people said it could be the VTC valve under the cams but further study showed that the VTC valve only supplies the first cam caps with oil, and they are the ones without hardly any damage but the others are horribly wore.

when I removed the valve cover I noticed the cam seemed to be a little dry but oil is still puddled around the valves and the jet holes are full.

I feel the cams themselves didn't get oil into them via the cam holder/cap but im here for you guy's expertise.

already dropping a K24A2 into the rsx but im thinking of dropping this a3 into a old EF if I can fix the oil problem cheaply otherwise ill probably just go with a 24A2 myself. but hey, its a free 20a3 might as well see what I can do with it.

 

Wow, quite alot of irregular wear!

How many miles, what oil weight & was there any oil consumption prior to the timing jump?

 

no sir, no oil consumption. was freshly rebuilt 2 weeks prior, at first I thought the jump was due to a bad timing tensioner but now im not so sure.

mileage before rebuild was around 130k I believe and im not sure what oil. ill ask the owner when they get off work.

owner didn't replace tensioner after being told to during rebuild

 

For all that valvetrain wear to occur in just two weeks, I'd say either partially clogged oil passages or rebuild assembly error (over-torquing possibly?, I'm not too familiar with rebuilds).

 

I torqued every bolt around the rotational parts and head to spec myself, I thought of that and rechecked all my torque specs to make sure. I too think its a clog in the oil somewhere but I cant find anything unless its a jet, something smll. and the valves themselves are saturated so it wasent between the block and head,

where does the cam's get their oil supply from? an instructional video showed that it was from the 3rd cam bridge but looking at the head it looks as if the oil comes from the second.

 

yeah for it to happen in two weeks is insane... definitely had to be a failure somewhere in a passageway if you are 100% on torque specs. That sucks man...

 

any clues how to find such a clog? hoping to re use this motor just gona buy a head with a bent valve to steal the cams/bridge from.