Fg Cams - Beware Of Wear

[Never had any say Panda]

Hey randomly.. Not sure if it's been asked.. I'm not the brightest light bulb for mechanical things.. But I get that the wear obviously isn't a good thing.. However how much wear would it take to actually become noticeable in the running of the car? Was yours replaced because they thought it was an actual problem bomber? Or was it just a cautionary measure? Or is the level of wear in the photos literally a 'HOLY f*ck!' Level of wear and I'm obviously not reacting enough?

I understand if the camshaft failed entirely it would be pretty damn catastrophic.

But my limited knowledge says that as the cam shaft rotates the inlet and outlet valves open and close to coincide with the cylinders firing etc etc.. However that much wear looks like potentially micrometers of difference in how far a valve would open or close.. Obviously I work in an industry where the tolerance is 15mm on a good day or a second grader pass if it's more than 60mm..

[Bomber]

Would have made absolutely no difference to performance as the lobe had not lost any profile. It's more that the hard case had pit marks and as per the photo Ratter supplied also, you're actually losing small fragments of material which is going somewhere.

So yes, was precautionary for me as part of my valve spring upgrade and luckily my tuner had some donor low klm cams.

[Wilko16]

Panda - there should be no wear at all, the hardended steel should stay the same as long as there is always oil between the two parts

[Never had any say Panda]

I get that mate.. But I'm just asking whether it's really that bad..

I agree with bomber I hadn't considered that that small amount of steel has to go somewhere.. Usually into the oil and around the engine I guess..

Suppose while it may not be a problem now.. Could over time effect the life of the engine..

[jimmixr]

Long term Id say for sure.

We can all imagine how many are out there..

The majority of owners will never lift the rocker cover. I changed my cams out at approx. 20k for a set of atomics. All this talk got me curious. So went and looked at my stockies..and sure enough, one of the lobes is showing signs of wear. Never noticed it... but then again I didn't go looking for it. 20k!!!! Scary sh*t

["Captain Retard"]

I could be wrong......again....... But from reading this thread, it seems most of these cam failures have been found by chance, not because of an actual issue related to the cam pitting.

Correct me if I'm wrong, my missus has made a career out of it!!!

[will-82]

Out of curiosity have all of the people who have found wear increased the boost without changing valve springs?

[JETURBO]

Seen it on stock boost levels/engines

[ratter]

  On 29/08/2014 at 11:06 PM, will-82 said:

Out of curiosity have all of the people who have found wear increased the boost without changing valve springs?

last one we saw was stock although some one had attempted to tune it

[BenDoCo]

@mick

? wondering if checking mine should be added to the list