How many miles is to many miles to cam a car?

[lacofdfireman]

Just curious at what point in a cars life it’s to old or has to many miles to put in a Ford Racing Hot Rod Cam. If a car had 200k miles would that just be a stupid upgrade? Just curious what the overall thought is on that. If you were to install a cam in a high mileage car what else would you most likely wanna upgrade?


Also I’ve always wondered if a camshaft can be repaired and if it’s expensive to have done. New camshafts aren’t cheap. This one is scarred up pretty bad though on one of the lobs.

 

[Dino Dino Bambino]

There's no limit on the mileage of the engine. I'd go by it's overall condition. In your case the engine is remarkably clean after 127k miles and if you have a combination of negligible oil consumption, no sludge, good compression on all cylinders, plus no knocking/tapping, the only barrier to camming the engine is the cost.
You might want to take your damaged cam to a machine shop, preferably one that specialises in reprofiling cams. There's definitely someone out there with the equipment and expertise to restore the damaged lobe for you.

 

[moooosestang]

That's a good question and i have no idea. does adding a mild cam put any more strain on the valve train than the stock cam? I only have 60k miles on my car, 59,600 to be exact and i'm either going to add a cam or just do a built long block. I'd really like to max out this whipple and after that who knows.

 

[MrBhp]

There really is no good answer to that question. As stated, depends on previous maintenance, driving habits, etc. For me it would depend on how far it was to get towed back to the pits on the return road after blowing an engine. In other words, once I have shrapnel in an engine, nothing new is going on it until it's been taken apart an hot-tanked. I have 110k on my car. I've been running 10lbs of boost for the last 40k with a stock bottom end 3V. The problem you can run into repairing a camshaft is when you damage one, you usually have worn through the surface hardening. There's no way I would spend the money to have it repaired.

I was the Crower Cam distributor in Texas for many years, at which time they sponsored my car. I had several cams we were testing, There was usually one cam in the mail at all times. If I damaged a cam, it went in the scrap pile. And these were the high end of the high end, as camshafts go.

Our stock cams are probably far from the quality of the cams I was running.

But, considering everything I just said, if I ate a cam right now, I could not justify the money for a new cam. Maybe a good junkyard cam? Or keep an eye out on the classified section of this forum. Heck, some member might send their old one for the cost of shipping.

 

[JC SSP]

Sound advice.

If something got chewed up or damaged in a motor I would be concerned of metal filings floating around.

I will not invest in HP cams at this point but some decent OEM take offs to get you back on the road.

 

[Badd GT]

I have a set of Comp 127350 cams with about 2 hours run time on them if you’re interested. They do require new valve springs

 

[Juice]

That is too damaged for me to be putting just cams in.

If you decide to fix it, would do a stock cam, and see if the engine is OK. Possibly a used stock cam someone who swapped cams has lying around.
That much metal shavings in the oil could really mess up the cam sensor readings.

 

[JC SSP]

Could mess up a lot of things… bearings, oil pump, etc.

I would not invest anything more than good used cams and see where your at from there.

 

[eighty6gt]

Get yourself some frpp hot rod cams, drop them in and enjoy life. You'll want to replace at least the affected follower.