loctited the cams

[jhawk]

I loctited the cams on my 99 this weekend. If anyone is intrested in the process let me know.

jim

 

[Mac98SHO]

Ok, allow me to be the devils advocate here. I am by no means bashing this repair procedure.

You super glued your cams????? Will this be as strong as Tig/Mig welding them.

I know glue have come along way since the they guy in the hard hat and I beam...

Why did you chose this method? Are you very confident the Locktite wont let loose later on?

I am not sure locktite was meant for this application, but **** if it works why not.

 

[ADE 1000]

Jhawk -

I would be very interested to hear what you did.

Loctite seems like it would work. I heard talk of using it on v8sho.com, but that site has not been updated in ages.

 

[jhawk]

I chose the loctite method because I could do it myself. Will this be as strong as welding them? Well, no of course it won't be. Will it be strong enough? I think so.

If you look at the cams and gears you will see that there are splins on the cam. When the gear was installed the end of the cam was expanded. The splines from the cam grip the inside of the gear. From what I have read the gear doesn't simply spin on the cam it works itself loose by moving left to right(Wobbling?)

I figured I did not need the loctite to hold the gear on, just to stop the wobble from begining. What the loctite does is fill up all the minute spaces between the gear and cam. Without this space it is almost impossible for the cam to work loose. Somewhere on v8sho there is a simple diagram of the cam and gear. This will show you exactly what I am talking about.

After removing the valve covers and looking at the cam/gears it was hard for me to believe that they could work themselfs loose. My car has 40,000 and there was absolutely no sign of loosness.

 

[srfdude]

Is the Loctite as thin as Superglue so it wicks its way in? I only wonder how it deals with the oil that has to be already there.
Mike

 

[stephen newberg]

I have considered doing this also, just as a precaution. Did you first use an oil solvent to get any traces out of the gap? To answer one of the above posters, Locktite is designed to wick into extremely small spaces, so if there were no other foreign materials in there, I think it would work very well on a motor that is not yet having troubles.

I recently got a responce from Ford on this issue. They indicate they currently have about 50 confirmed instances out of the 19,000 or so engines out there. As a result, they are not takiing this as a major concern yet. At that ratio, I certainly see their point, though I admit it remains a back of the mind concern for me, as an owner.

The locktite certainly cannot hurt, and it is an exceptional adhesive for this kind of situation, provided the gears are not already loose on the cam. For that matter, welding in three 120 degree separated spots between the cam and each gear should work fine too, and if there is some play, that is likely the only answer short of new cams and gears. But in general, I think this might all be getting overstated a bit. I know it sounds scary from the reports over on V8SHO.com, but the number of problems for the number of motors is miniscule, and we have no idea of the conditions under which the subject motors have been in use (it being hard to trust completely what an upset owner reports in this area).

I might pop the covers and Locktite mine this summer. Or I might just go sailing...

pax, smn

 

[ADE 1000]

I find it hard to believe that there are only 50 documented cases. V8sho.com has 45 listed, I have a hard time believing that they were able to find almost every SHO out there with a failed cam.

In any case, if the number is in fact 50 that sets my mind at ease somewhat. Perhaps there is nothing really to worry about. But the Loctite does seem to be a good precautionary measure.

61K miles and still going strong.

 

[jhawk]

I used non-residue brake cleaner to remove what oil there may have been between the gear and cam. The loctite wicks very well. It took roughly ten applications to fill the gaps between the cam and gear. I applied the loctite about every five minutes until it would no longer wick and I could visibly see the open spaces were filled.

The percentage of cars having this problem is extremely small, and the chances of it happening to me were not great. However, I was thinking along the same lines as Newberg. If I do nothing I will constantly worry about it. Now my mind is at ease. If that's all I get out of it it was worth while.

 

[ADE 1000]

jhawk -

Any idea of how many hours it took you to do this from start to finish???

 

[jhawk]

It took about 5hrs. None of the work was difficult. The time consuming part is working around all the wiring. The coil pacs along with gobs of other wiring run across the valve covers. Getting the egr off is also a pain.

 

[mholhut]

Just for clarification on how the spocket is mounted to the cam...

The sprocket and cam lobes are aligned in a jig and then a bearing is run through the middle of the cam, pressing the cam out into the sprocket and lobes. There are groves on the cam where the sprocket is seated. These grooves look similar to threads on a bolt. The sprockets also have groves or splines, but they run perpindiclualr to the threads on the cam. I think Ford was thinking that this cross-hatch type of mating system would allow a more permanent bond between the sprocket and the cam. It was evident in my failed cam, that the splines on the sprocket wore channels in the threads on the cam. This wasn't from a latteral wobble in the sprocket as it turned the cam, but from too much force being exerted on the sporcket. The spline and thread mating method wouldn't hold. This has been proven, not only by my experience, but from others who stated that the sprocket had totally spun on the cam, causing valvetrain failure. The theory is that Ford used different diameter cam tubes in a variety of motors. The thinner diameter cam tubes aren't able to be pressed out as far as the larger diameter cams. This is an obvious advantage to motors with larger diameter cams, as they would hold the sprockets and lobes on tighter. Ideally, to prove this theory, I'd like more information about the diameter of cams on failed motors -vs- non-failed motors. But, there's too many variables to account for error when "mic"ing so many cams, and it would be an unrealistic adventure to have one person go around just measuring cam diameter. So, will loctite help prevent the sprocket from spinning on the cam shaft in such a cross hatched bonding process? I don't know. I think it all lies in the diameter of the cams themselves.

FWIW

MPH

 

[jhawk]

That's good info. I thought it odd for only the cam to be splined. With all the gaps between the cam and gear filled with loctite the force should be spread out over a larger area. This would make it more difficult for the gear to wear groves in the cam.

 

[smsfordman]

I would like to now which type loctite is being used , blue or red.

 

[jhawk]

I actually used green permatex"loctite". Go to permatex.com and do a search on "green". It will give you all the specs.