I think my cams just failed?

[My_Silver_SHO]

All of a sudden the car had no power, thought I was out of gas. Bad miss and running very hot and overheated. Towed car home, filled coolant... car starts, no power, bad miss. Is it toast?

 

[SHOZ123]

Sounds like the front head if it overheated. Cam driven water pump and all.

 

[-DVP-]

Wait... People are still driving non welded cars around here...

 

[My_Silver_SHO]

I thought I was good since I had 130K on my SHO. Guess not.

 

[frosho]

It's not if, it's when.

 

[intimdatr]

I thought I was good since I had 130K on my SHO. Guess not.

Oh dear........

 

[My_Silver_SHO]

I am on the fence on what to do with this car...

Almost $2K for tranny, cooler, and TC
$100s more spent on brakes, coil packs, plugs, sensors, airpump, alternator, O2 sensors, suspension parts....
Just bought snow tires and wheels.

I can just hear my wife now...you want to put more money into that thing.

I am not sure I want to put any more money into this car. Its a nice car but...

 

[ShadetreeSHOguy]

Part it. Scrap it. Crush it

 

[sperold]

At least take the valve covers off and have a look.
You do not know if the cam went west till you look, and if it did, it may not have moved enough for the valves to hit the piston...... yet.

In the early days, people used to drill the gear / cam and install a roll pin. What happened to that method?

 

[Liquid_force]

I thought I was good since I had 130K on my SHO. Guess not.

Sorry to hear the bad news, but the evidence is pretty clear - if you don't weld them it's gonna happen.

I can just about guarantee you there's an engine shop somewhere near you that would have welded them for something in the $100 range if you could do the valve cover removal.

When I bought mine (91.5k) I drove it home, picked up the wife and boy for a ride around the block, and put it in the garage. I didn't start it again until after the cams were welded.

 

[SHOtimer]

I thought I was good since I had 130K on my SHO. Guess not.

Doug

 

[Mr Anonymous]

In the early days, people used to drill the gear / cam and install a roll pin. What happened to that method?

Zip ties were found to be more effective.

 

[SHOZ123]

Could have tried the loctitie.....

 

[kevinspann]

Why was pinning such crap? It seems to work well for MTX differentials :angelnot:

 

[Liquid_force]

I don't "KNOW" the answer to that, but common sense tells me...

Significantly harder to do. More time consuming. More expensive (??).
No more effective.

 

[stephen newberg]

Why was pinning such crap? It seems to work well for MTX differentials :angelnot:

Its not. They are messing with you, I would guess. Pinning is a long term tried and true engineering solution for keeping gears from moving on a rotating shaft, and works just fine if done right. However, it is more difficult to do right and more expensive than welding, which any competent welder can do for you quickly and cheaply, so almost everyone welds instead. Back when this was all getting going a decade and more ago, I know of 2-3 people that pinned instead, and they did fine with it and never had any problems.

pax, smn

 

[SHOZ123]

Pinning required removal of the cams. Much more labor and cost involved.

 

[Whydah91]

Right on both counts. Cams have been pinned to rotating assemblies since there have been cams. I've always thought welding, while efficient, was nasty. It's one of the two reasons I never bought a 3rd gen, the other being my dislike of any thing 'automatic' for the street.

 

[SHOZ123]

Welding does throw a bunch of crap into the motor. My opinion is they should include a magnetic drain plug with every job.

I had mine welded and changed oil 3-4 times before getting a magnetic plug. After the new plug for the next 3 or 4 times it had quite a bit of metal on it.

 

[BamSHO]

Yeah sorry to here about your car. I just welded mine this past summer, motor had 155,000 on it. Guess I got lucky. I would def pull the valve covers off to have a good look.


Brian Michael
98 silver Gen3