Cam wiped out, what the hell did I do wrong?!?!?

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64physhy

64physhy

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So I thought the #8 intake lifter had collapsed, so I took the intake off to check it out. When I got it off, I found 3 lobes of the cam wiped out, along with the lifters. Also, when I got the timing chain off, I can't even rotate the cam by hand, so looks like the bearings are shot, too.
I just got this thing together and broke in, now this!! The cam is (was) a Hughes 3742AL Hyd cam, using the beehive springs they recommended. I put it together following all instructions that came with everything, and a couple books. Cam rotated with just my fingers, lifters dropped right in the bores, etc, etc.
When I was first trying to start it for break in, I had some troubles getting it started, so turned it over a few times before I got it to fire. Could that have been enough to do this kind of damage?
The 3 lifters are so messed up, I can't even get them out, and don't want to mess up the bores by yanking them out.

Pics to follow.
 
Here are the pics, can't figure out how to resize them on my Mac. Oh, the engine is the 414 in my sig.

0713101440.jpg


cam.jpg


cam2.jpg


cam3.jpg


cam4.jpg
 
Is it from the extra cranking before getting it started, improper rocker adjustment, or what? I was very liberal with the assembly lube.
 
Where were the lifters made? I went through 4 cams till I got some lifters made by Johnson in USA, no problems since. Chinese lifters and cam blanks should not be trusted regardless of who's label is on them.
 
did you see if the lifter rotate while went the engine is turned over..?
 
Sorry for your luck I know how you feel,I've given up on flat hyd.cams rollers from now on,roller blocks or retro rollers only,seems just about everybody is loosing flat cams,I don't think it's the oil's fault I think the quality of the cams and lifters is crap.I've even started to run the eastwood additive just for piece of mind.
 
Double checked guide/seal to retainer clearance? No possible coil bind ? Seat pressure? Break-in oil with zink additive ? With double or triple springs, break-in the cam with only "outers". Good Luck, ateam.
 
Purple Haze said:
Did you run it at a high idle for 25 min when you fired it?
Click to expand...
Kept it 1500-3000 for 30 minutes.

70aarcuda said:
did you see if the lifter rotate while went the engine is turned over..?
Click to expand...
Yes, when I turned it by hand. I didn't have the rockers on, so they weren't under any pressure when I checked it. Could that give me a bad indication?
 
Snake said:
is it just me but some of your lifters arent even lined up with the cam loab?
Click to expand...

Might be the angle of the pic. The lifters are slightly bigger than the lobes, so over hang them a bit. It does look like the #7 exhaust lifter doesn't line up, and almost looks like it could hit the intake lobe.
 
Did you change the oil after break in and not use zink additive in your new oil? If so Do you have coil bind.
 
When it was running for break in did you look and see the pushrods spinning while you were breaking in?If they were not rotating then the cam went flat from start up.
 
Purple Haze said:
Did you change the oil after break in and not use zink additive in your new oil? If so Do you have coil bind.
Click to expand...
I did change the oil after break in, and I did use a Zinc additive.

bigdemo1 said:
When it was running for break in did you look and see the pushrods spinning while you were breaking in?If they were not rotating then the cam went flat from start up.
Click to expand...
I did not check the pushrods while it was running. It ran great and strong, until I started having carb problems. As soon as I got a good carb on it and drove it is when it started having problems. I had driven it a few times before the carb issues, and it went like a raped ape.
 
It should have never seen lower than 2000 rpm.jmo


You would have to crank it till the cam was dry for that to necessarily be the case.

proper rotation of the lifters, 120- 130'ish psi spring pressure for break in and some zinc are the main ingredients for successful break in.

and the only reason for varying the rpm between 2200-3000rpmis to better distribute oil splash to all the lobes and excite the lifter spin along with the tapered lobe


BTW I bought a cam from hughes one time, the solid brother of the one you just killed

...It also went flat.

Engle used to make their cams untill they wanted profiles so fast they had a failure rate of %50, so they cut ties over warranty disputes.
I run engle now.
 
What are the beehive springs they recommended? How many times did the engine get turned over before you fired it?
 
sorry for your misfortune.

on a side note if you open a pic in the program "preview" then go to "tools" at top you will see "adjust size". I usually make the pics 800x600 if they are big like over 1mb. or you can go to file then "save as" and at the bottom of the new window that pops up, will allow you to adjust the size of the image based on the megabites.
 
1wild&crazyguy said:
It should have never seen lower than 2000 rpm.jmo


You would have to crank it till the cam was dry for that to necessarily be the case.

proper rotation of the lifters, 120- 130'ish psi spring pressure for break in and some zinc are the main ingredients for successful break in.

and the only reason for varying the rpm between 2200-3000rpmis to better distribute oil splash to all the lobes and excite the lifter spin along with the tapered lobe


BTW I bought a cam from hughes one time, the solid brother of the one you just killed

...It also went flat.

Engle used to make their cams untill they wanted profiles so fast they had a failure rate of %50, so they cut ties over warranty disputes.
I run engle now.
Click to expand...

I barely let it go to 1500, it was mostly over 2000, and I kept it varied between 2000-3000. Aren't all of Engle's cams custom grind, or do they actually have "off the shelf" cams?
The cam bearings are also toast, so I guess I'm going to have to pull the whole thing out and tear it completely apart and take it to get new bearings put in. Unless there's an easier way.
 
Really sucks. I have not heard or read about a large number of cam lobe issues generally although some seem to have issues that are related to the lack of additives in new oil. Strange the cam bearings are toast. Dont those usually last for ever and ever? I wonder if this could indicate an oiling issue (oil not getting to the cam area?) is your timing chain excessively stretched already? Just speculations here..
 
Timing chain was new, but I should probably change it because it probably did stretch from trying to spin the cam.
 
Sorry to hear about your problems.This is the reason I went solid roller.Hope you can get it fixed fast and enjoy it.
 
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