what happend here?? cam failure

5 miles old..proper installation,good oil pressure
out of a chevy 350
summit says no on warranty.........
any ideas or input...was a complete cam kit
regards stig

 

Ouch. Did you use break the cam in before you ran it on the road? There have been a lot of flat tappet cam failures due to use of modern oils which have little or no zinc - search for threads relating to ZDDP. That's why I am going with a roller cam for my latest build.

 

did you use cam break in lube ?

 

Did you keep the revs up and vary them for 20 minutes when you got it going?

 

better pull the bottom end apart and check bearings.

I pulled a flattened cam like that and just swapped it, fairly soon after it spun a rod bearing.

1 of 3 things went wrong, no break in lube, not properly broken in, or wrong oil (no zinc).

 

Gotta use the zddp additive or a break in oil these days with a flat tappet. I recommend Joe Gibbs break in oil. Needs to run at varying rpms from about 1000 to 3000 up and down for 15 or 20 minutes when you start it. You also need to know the spring pressures. Comp cams flatten the easiest because of the agressive ramps. Not saying they are bad products at all. Just the hardest to break in. They actually make more power than most similar grinds from competitors.

 

Gotta give up all the details. Seat/open spring pressures, lift oil ETC.



Never used anything other then Valvoline VR1 20-50 to break in cams. And I run it religiously for the life of the engine.

If you ran the 981-16 springs you should have been below 260# open and that is a walk in the park for your engine.

Did you prime the oil system? Did you grind on the starter to get it fired? Was the cam lubed like a greased pig?

Just guessing you had some head setup defect or failed to go through the correct breakin procedures.

 

Sucks when that happens.....

 

ok
il try to dig out that info asap
its not my engine..its my smoking friend you see in the photos
he is not good in english thats why I try to help
regards stig

 

How old is the cam kit? I had one a few years ago that had a bad run of lifters. Looked alot like that.

 

If Summit says no warranty, I'd call Comp Cams. It's their rep that's on the line.
And I'd bet no Engine Oil Suppliment, but I've been wrong before.
Larry T

 

I had one in a 350 do EXACTLY that same thing.
Lost the crank 800 miles later.
Get that filter/oil replaced!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Check the crank.rod bearings as well.

 

How did you adjust the valves???

 

A lot of import lifters were used around the turn of the century (later '90s early 2K).

Not to rule out bad oil, improper breakin, etc.

Sometimes its a combination of things.

I have a little jug of cam breakin lube the old man gave me on his 80th B-Day. He said never use it and pass it on to the next one with the same message. Then he pointed out to me that you should always use the breakin lube that comes from the cam manufacturer.

I figure he must have known.

But that doesn't explain the bad cam.

 

That looks like lack of lube and bad adjustment,and as bad as the lifters are dished could be complete wrong cam and lifters for engine,new oil pump or not?

 

Check the valve springs and make sure you don't have the stiffest spring in the set installed in the shortest pocket.

Also check and make sure the valves are nice and smooth/not binding/sticking in the guides.

-Brad

 

Same thing happened to me...expensive lesson to learn!

 

the cam kit arrived from summit in january 2010.......s

 

At the insistance of my favorite machinest I've always used GM EOS (engine oil supplement) for engine break in. Not sure what's in it but it's formulated to provide extra anti-scuff protection while all the newly machined parts are getting aquainted.

Looking at the lifter it appears that it wasn't rotating freely in its bore, when you put the new ones in coat only the face of the lifter with the sticky cam lube and use only oil or Lubriplate assembly lube on the sides. I would also recommend using a high zinc motor oil such as Z-Alt, Brad Penn, etc... because most of the commonly available motor oils have had most of the zinc and sulphur removed to comply with EPA regs.

As unpleasant as it sounds, I would tear the motor down and thoroughly clean all of the oil passages in the block and crank as well as inspect the bearings. Check inside of the oil pump too because it draws unfiltered oil. It may be scored or contain metal particles from the camshaft failure.

 

FARMER...OIL TREATMENT? HELL you couldn't do that much damage in 5 minutes with a grinder. I mean look at the lifters, there are chunk's knocked off the bottoms. no man you did something wrong. that's my belief and i'am sticking to it!...POP.

 

Thats what I was thinkin, rockers too tight.

 

^^^^^^^^
What he said. I'm not into the theology behind making cam installation and break-in out to be a black art. If you have the basics covered, we'd be reading something else, like how good the mofo runs with the new cam.

Are the two wiped out lifter adjacent? I'd suspect too tight lash or a severe local lack of oil being the cause or the lifters weren't rotating in their bores.

I'd still like to be able to do a hardness check on the lifters and cam, compare those readingd to good lifters and lobes. I'm inquisitive by nature.

Bob

 

I figure the rock of the thing would be a good indicator of that, a bit different than cam lope! I can spot a too-tight valve right off the bat.

Bob

 

Yeah,I agree.I've wiped out a cam and seen a few others,but nothing like that after 5 minutes.You should pull the engine ,disassemble,clean it up,check everything .

 

Is there anything blocking the oil galleries? Something went wrong during assembly. If you got your cam in January then summits warranty is up. You have 30 days for a full refund, after that its like 50% or some crap up until 90 days. After that no warranty on most items not all. Id call comp cams. They might have you send the parts to them for testing.

 

Yup , every time I seen that happen the valves were over tighted ,or the lift on the cam didn't match the rest of the components

 

Depending on the cylinder heads being used, your problem may be that the retainer is hitting the guide/seal. Some SBC heads cannot live with more than about .450 lift without machine work. That particular cam has .479/.465 lift. Did your friend check the retainer-to-guide clearance?

 

Losing the bottom end will occure when the oil filter plugs up and the internal bypass valve in the adapter on filter opens allowing all of the metal from the cam to circulate throughout the oil system. BTDT but not from a cam. Please don't ask...

 

Rockers adjusted too tight IMO as well. I have installed and broke in many cams hydraulic and solid ,and have never had one fail yet .If its a hydraulic cam and the lifters are preloaded to the point where there is no give left ,it will eat them up fast (especially in the break in period).As far as the break in lube goes ,i used sum slick 50 once long ago as cam lube (because i didnt have any cam lube at the time) and it didnt go flat .If the spring pressure caused it ,it would have to be an extreme pressure scenerio to do that .Im sticking with over preloaded lifters as the cause...

 

I've used STP, Bardahl and everything else short of Crisco or KY gel and never lost a cam like that... or at all.

Bob