My timing belt broke and my headgasket was leaking. These two things, of course, forced me to remove my cylinder head to determine how much damage was cause by the timing belt breaking.

After I remove the cams to remove the head bolts I noticed that there are several grooves cut into the cam seats and in the camshaft where it meets the seats. I know this is probably not the right name for the seats.

I assume this damage was caused by metal in the oil. But my real consern is how bad does this effect the engine and can this be repaired.

I am basically looking for some opinions on this damage and what I should do about this.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.


Thanks,

ANTGRIFF

If there are metal flakes in the oil, your last concern is grooves in the camshaft "seats". What kind of grooves are we talking about here? small scratches or actual grooves that you can feel with your fingernail?

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Current Mods:
AEM V2 intake, MP 60mm TB, Accel 24lb injectors, Crane #12 cams,Ross forged 10:1 pistons, Eagle H-beam rods, ARP head and main studs,
Ported and polished head, Crane valve springs, PT rockers and lifters, MSD coil, Accel wires, AFX underdrive pulley,
DC sports ceramic coated header, Ebay testpipe, Apex-i N1 catback, 255 lph fuel pump, Apex-i SAFC, Spec Stage III clutch, Phantom Grip,
full Energy Suspension polyurethane bushing kit, Tokico springs and blue shocks, Russell steel braided clutch and brake lines,
17" Koning Imagines, NOS 100 hp direct port N20 kit

These groove can be felt with the finger nail and they look slightly deeper than the grooves on a vinyle record.

Just take some 1000 grit sandpaper make sure there are no high spots and you will be good to go.

best time so far 14.3 @ 101.1mph(no traction)
www.cnnmotorsports.com

There seems to be debris in my oil. So is there some thing I should special to flush out the debris. Or should I just replace what needs replacing and clean oil pan before I start it back up?

Thanks,

Ant

My personal opinion is that the bearing surfaces on the cams and head should be glassy smooth. So much so that the cams should actually pop when you remove them due to suction between the two surfaces. If you have grooves that are deeper than on a record, then I would start saving for a rebuilt head. There is no real fix, outside of welding material into the cam journals and reboring. The cheapest thing is to find a good, used head and get it rebuilt. You can throw everything back together and drive the car for a while. The problem won't go away, but will get worse over time. The clearance between the journals in the head and the camshaft bearing surfaces will continue to grow. Eventually, you might start to lose oil pressure as the clearance grows. The really bad news is that your crankshaft and rod bearings likely have the same damage. They are lubricated by the same oil and can get scored the same way.

Corbin

'95 ESI-T
Now with more power and fewer leaks



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Visit the Howell Automotive Open House August 20th, 2005. The largest gathering of Chrysler 2.0 engines on the planet.

US Small Business Administration Export Business of the Year for 2003

Visit Howell Automotive at www.howellautomotive.com