I was installing my new crower stage 1 camshaft on my jdm d15b sohc VTEC motor, and i was almost done and doing a valve last adjustment, when i noticed my third valve from the right (cyl#2, exh side) wouldn't budge, so i took the rocker arm assy. apart and found that my camshaft was broken in 3 places!!! i tightened everything in the right sequence and i'm pretty sure i didnt overtighten them ( i hadn't even begun to torque them).

the reason for my post is, i spend about $325 shipped for that cam, from morepowerracing.com. do you think they will refund my money if i tell them i basically f*cked up, and i've been saving for months to afford it, so please send me a new one and i'll send you the jacked up one. their offices (and Crower) are not open till mon morn. Does anyone think they'll send me a new one?

 

I don't know what they will do but that sucks

 

$h!t man, you shouldnt be able to break a cam like that if you ran over it with a tank. BTW, if your going to show the manufacturer a photo, make sure you show em one with lots of "CAM LUBE" on it.

 

Hmm, not so true actually. A cam can shatter if it falls from a couple feet high. Thats strange how it just snapped like that though. Didi you see any cracks in it when you were installing it?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by 2004es2 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Hmm, not so true actually. A cam can shatter if it falls from a couple feet high. Thats strange how it just snapped like that though. Didi you see any cracks in it when you were installing it?</TD></TR></TABLE>

you know i didnt really look its kinda hard to see cracked in something that has so many lobes/lines and stuff on it.

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by itsmejto &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">$h!t man, you shouldnt be able to break a cam like that if you ran over it with a tank. BTW, if your going to show the manufacturer a photo, make sure you show em one with lots of "CAM LUBE" on it.
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i used all of the lube in the tube on it.

 

Maybe the fact that it has 0 miles on it, bares such evidence on the cam shaft, and that may help your case, since you never actually even got around to USING it, and it probably doesn't have any scars from overtightening, which u specified u didn't do. Anyways, my best advice is, lots of pics, and DONT TAKE NO for an answer.

 

Crower warranties there cams. I thought they fixed the snapping problem (this has been going on for years) I guess not. Just call them up, theyll say to send it out and theyll send you a new one.

 

i sure hope so, this is kinda i have no idea how/why it snapped, i mean what if it pulled that **** while i was driving? crower could potentially have a lot bigger issue.

this just sucked i saved up for so long and then took the time/effort and it took a **** on me.

thanks for all the help guys, i will certainly give them a ring-a-ling on monday morning.

if anyone else wants to chime in, feel free

 

wow man never seen a cam do that from just installing it... **** i slammed one against a back window at the junkyard once and that **** didnt even show a mark. Good luck getting this thing fixed, Crower deff will take it back though, they warrenty their cams.

 

By the looks of it, maintenance is not priority on that engine. Unless someone came in and poured a can of black paint in the cam valley. I don't know that Crower ever had a problem with cams snapping before they were ever started, did they? Sorry, but I would suspect installation error on this one. Whether it was cam caps that were scarred up from low/no oil or cam caps backwards holding the camshaft, I think it's probably something along those lines that happened. Let's see a pic of the other cam and the back sides of the cam caps so we can figure out what happened so it won't happen again.

Could be true cam failure but I have my doubts.

Ryan

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by RyanA &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">By the looks of it, maintenance is not priority on that engine. Unless someone came in and poured a can of black paint in the cam valley. I don't know that Crower ever had a problem with cams snapping before they were ever started, did they? Sorry, but I would suspect installation error on this one. Whether it was cam caps that were scarred up from low/no oil or cam caps backwards holding the camshaft, I think it's probably something along those lines that happened. Let's see a pic of the other cam and the back sides of the cam caps so we can figure out what happened so it won't happen again.

Could be true cam failure but I have my doubts.

Ryan</TD></TR></TABLE>

The maintenance of my engine isn't the purpose of this thread, and for your information the oil was changed during the swap. This engine has been in my car for 4 months, and has never been low on oil once. Like I said in my OP everything was lubed properly and tightened according to their respective tightening sequence. Even on the off chance that something wasn't tightened down properly, the camshaft should not have broken in 2 places (broken into 3 pieces).

I have pictures of both camshafts but there isn't really any reason to post them. I don't really appriciate being told that I don't take care of my engine, as I take pride in what I do and how I do it. But I genuinely thank you for your concern.

 

and taking a look at that picture again, my oil isn't really that dark, the picture was taken at 3am and most of the light in the picture was my flash.

 

Hmmmm, from the sounds of this I'm surprised Crower are still in buisness if it's "common place" for their cams to do this. They sureley won't be selling me one anytime soon.

 

how about you contact the shop and tell them truth:

they sent you pos cam that broke upon install, before you even torqued them, there is no way you are at fault here. now make sure to be all polite and **** cause nobody likes a rude customer. also contact crower, tell them who you bought it from, and what happend.

i cant believe this, does anybody make quality parts anymore? i seen crane break and toda, and skunk, whats next?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by itsmejto &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Hmmmm, from the sounds of this I'm surprised Crower are still in buisness if it's "common place" for their cams to do this. They sureley won't be selling me one anytime soon.
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haha out of all the research i did on buying a camshaft, i never read up on them breaking easily. as far as the brand Crower goes, its a pretty solid name and is one of the leading manufacturers of camshafts. besides them the only other company i think that makes them for d-series is zex... Sk2 stopped producing them.

 

it would be nice to see pics of the back side of your cam caps, just to see if there damaged or not... regardless the cam still should not break.

 

Negative.

Tell the cam company exactly what happened, then tell them when they send the new one to package it up really well since the delivery service they chose seems to like dropping packages.

I've seen it a hundred times. The cam leaves the company in excellent condition, but by the time it's finally delivered you can't install it without it breaking. Stress cracks from being dropped make it excessively brittle.

They had better replace it, and if they don't you need to post up about it so no one deals with them.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by The_Caged_Bird &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Negative.

Tell the cam company exactly what happened, then tell them when they send the new one to package it up really well since the delivery service they chose seems to like dropping packages.

I've seen it a hundred times. The cam leaves the company in excellent condition, but by the time it's finally delivered you can't install it without it breaking. Stress cracks from being dropped make it excessively brittle.

They had better replace it, and if they don't you need to post up about it so no one deals with them. </TD></TR></TABLE>

i for sure will, the carrier was UPS ground btw, it came in a box which had those air pillows (not bubblewrap), inside of a cardboard box btw.

 

btw i ordered it from morepowerracing.com should i go through them or just through crower?

 

wow this is the 4th or 5th time i have heard of their cams breaking. and not just in Honda's. i had a friend of mine have a set broken during install in a Sr20. He called Crower told them the situation and needless to say he got a new set and then sold them lol.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by ltrkstr2k &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">wow this is the 4th or 5th time i have heard of their cams breaking. . </TD></TR></TABLE>

x2

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by ltrkstr2k &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">wow this is the 4th or 5th time i have heard of their cams breaking. and not just in Honda's. i had a friend of mine have a set broken during install in a Sr20. He called Crower told them the situation and needless to say he got a new set and then sold them lol. </TD></TR></TABLE>

well that's kind of comforting, at least i'll probably be sent a replacement, that's all i really want out of this situation.

 

cams break from time to time to be honest if a cam was to get bumped up against the table or anything like that it is enough to cause it to snap, a buddy of mine had a set of used cams he picked up for his ls/v and about 300 miles later the intake cam snapped in 3 pieces while cruising down the highway, im willing to be it got dropped during shipment or something like that...... and i hope you get a new one sent out!!

 

me too bro, this really is a relief that everyone thinks they'll give me a new one, but i wont know anything till i give them a call tomorrow morning.

im so pissed i put my crower sticker under my hood and everything and now i dont even have a camshaft to back it up with, i feel like such a poser haha

 

update: just got off the phone with morepowerracing and it sounds like they are going to give me an exchange, but they need to call Crower, and get the details. They're going to get back to me within the day.