how to destroy your camshaft in 5 (or less) easy steps (pics)

[bnv944]

1) ignore that slight barely audible knock and tell yourself is because of the cold

2) decide the knock is bad enough and change the lifters

3) now tell yourself that knock is just the lifters wearing in

4) in a matter of 15 min, decide that what sounds like a hammer in your valve-train oil starvation, and bring her home to get checked up on

5) drink yourself to sleep after noticing chunks of metal in your distributor cap.

[HondaDustR]

Well, extra lucky it was external to the motor and didn't throw the timing enough to bend valves. 8v cams are almost a dime a dozen used. Still it sucks.

[John_AZ]

Great pictures.

Additional advice----Change the camshaft gear bolt to the new style.

[bnv944]

i dont know if the valves are bent or not. i have to take the cam tower off to inspect for more damage. thats as far as i got last night. has this happened to anyone else? the woodruff key just shearing and destroying things like that?

[Taz's Master]

Yes. Diagnosed the noise as a loose camshaft bolt, tightened it and drove it. While changing belts and replacing gaskets and seals, found the end of the cam is pretty beat up. Swapping in the cam tower from a parts car. It was in a thread posted last week or so.

[matthewb]

I have a full head from an 84 with the cam tower and all that I am looking to get rid of. I will seperate them if you would like only parts of it. Send me a pm if you are interested.

Matt

[HondaDustR]

FYI, there's a small difference between a late cam and an early cam. The late has a slightly more agressive exhaust profile with longer duration and 1mm more lift. The turbo cars share the early grind as well. A late cam can be dropped into a turbo or early NA for a slight improvement.

[Schumi]

I believe the cam sprocket bolt is a torque-to-yield bolt, and should never be reused. Else things like pictured happen.

[bnv944]

well before, i was toying with the idea of buying a used complete engine and completely rebuilding it from the block up. but i wasn't expecting it to happen this way. if anybody knows/has a full engine they wanna get rid of for cheap let me know.. ill try to swap the heads and cams out with the used one, keep the rest of the parts for spares

anyway. pulled the cam tower off today and have more pics that ill upload later. i found a crack in the head, other damage to the springs. not pretty.

[Taz's Master]

I believe the cam sprocket bolt is a torque-to-yield bolt, and should never be reused. Else things like pictured happen.


Don't know if that's true, but for less than $3 from our host, I'm replacing mine.

[Slam]

^ It's true.

When this happened to me I upgraded my early car to a late cam. Blessing in disguise, really.

[bnv944]

result of not paying attention ^

need to fix this...

[Dean924s]

Hmmmmm I just replace the cam sprocket bolts with grade 8 metric bolts from the local Hardware store. Cost is around $.95 I keep replacements to many of the nuts and bolts on these motors/cars in bins on the shelf. The local Hardware store carries most everything for very short $$$$. For a little more I can go stainless steel and considering the reaction that regular steel and aluminum I have been replacing many of the smaller easy to brake bolts with stainless steel.

[HondaDustR]

In the 3rd one, I wouldn't worry about it. I guess maybe you could JB weld the chunks back into place and sand the weld smooth, but it's not really a load-bearing area and has the gasket surface inboard from the locater pin hole, so it should still seal.

That intake can get kind of nasty if it hadn't been cleaned in awhile. The typical German overengineered deal with the crankcase breather system. Any crankcase vacuum leaks will do that alot more, like oil dipstick seals, rear balance shaft o-rings, etc. as well as leaky piston rings, but it always seems to build up at least some mess over time regardless of the state of everything else.

GL on it. You should be able to find a good used cam for fairly cheap.

[brian944turbo]

i've been messing with these cars since 89. Have never seen that happen before. Got a call from someone in Myrtle Beach Monday saying they had a bad lifter and needed a replacement. The car got towed to my house today and your thread helped me find the problem in less then 5 min. Identical problem. Looks like the cam bolt backed out and the woodruff key got stripped. Thanks you saved me a bunch of time trying to figure it out. You learn something new everyday. Now I need to call my freind and give him the bad news.

[Dean924s]

Locktite is your friend. This is one place where it is a must. I am betting the bolt was removed at some point and not torques properly AND not locktite was applied when reinstalled. I have seen this many times over the years.

[mattdavis11]

BTDT. I bought a used cam and cover for $125, including the seal. Pretty easy fix.

[bnv944]

nah locktite was used, i guess it wasnt torqued down enough tho.

[HondaDustR]

Yeah, it's tempting to go easy on it, especially if you've ever had to drill out a stripped one (.. not fun!).

[brian944turbo]

Looks like the one I'm working on bent a valve also. Cam, cam sprocket, and cam nut are all toast. It's going back together with used parts monday. Thank god for parts cars or this one would not have been saved. And yes locktite will be his new friend.