Cam Pic

[tfranchise]

This is a pic of my front cams. I know the pic is not very good, but can you guys give me a idea of the wear you see.

<small>[ February 17, 2003, 12:21 AM: Message edited by: tfranchise ]</small>

 

[skippie]

eek! your right, thats not a good pic. I dont see anything thumbs_u shrug

<small>[ February 17, 2003, 12:16 AM: Message edited by: skippie ]</small>

 

[NotSoSlowSHO]

What oil have you been running?

That color alone disturds me... I mean, even some of the lobes are stained that nasty color eek!

 

[AutoSHO]

tfranchise:
This is a pic of my front cams. I know the pic is not very good, but can you guys give me a idea of the wear you see.

Ahh!!! Quaker State or Pennzoil, which is it?

 

[DougLee25]

Hold on a sec, let me get out my magnifying glass....

 

[CALL AAA]

OH MY GOD! It wore your valve covers right off!

 

[sdpatt]

You will need to provide a close up of the tips of some of the cam lobes for us to be able to determine if there is any wear. Here is a picture of a worn cam lobe with the "tree ring" type wear pattern. Do you have any that look like this?

 

[tfranchise]

I've run castrol gtx until about 6 months ago when i switched to castrol synthetic. Yes some of my cams have that wear pattern on them. I'll try to post some close-ups later today. BTW , as far as i know there has never been a valve adjustment done on this car.

<small>[ February 17, 2003, 08:15 AM: Message edited by: tfranchise ]</small>

 

[DavidT]

don't feel bad, mine looked exactly like yours 6 mos.ago at my 60K (150K) thumbs_u squint frown

<small>[ February 17, 2003, 04:56 PM: Message edited by: dkautumna ]</small>

 

[PROPHET]

Would synthetic do that in 6 months? eek!

 

[sdpatt]

Synthetic oil keeps the insides very clean, but Mobil 1 at least, has been less than stellar in the wear prevention department. Castrol GTX does not make the inside of the engine look like that. Here are a few shots from my engine at 269,000 miles and it has only used Castrol GTX. No orangeness and no cam lobe wear.

 

[tfranchise]

what would have made my engine look that color?

 

[DavidT]

maybe a previous owner neglecting or going too long w/out an oil change?

 

[tfranchise]

BTW here are the better pics of my cams.

<small>[ February 17, 2003, 10:37 PM: Message edited by: tfranchise ]</small>

 

[SHO--ripper]

the oil having that redish orange hue means that someone drove your car for much longer than 3,000 miles w/o an oil change or was using some weird kind of oil. the cams don't look that bad a little bit pitted though.

 

[sdpatt]

There is actually a significant amount of cam lobe wear from lack of lubrication. Previous owners were not as diligent with the oil brands or the oil changes and that is the price that was paid. Sorry.