took cams off,, not sure what to think

well guys ,, took my cams off to take out the roller followers so i can start the timing in a few days, and noticed just the cam caps have some ridges in them ,,, like with my nail its bumpy, no chunks missing , just dont know if they are to be smooth or what?

also , if this isnt normal , what can i do to fix it besides new heads? (if anything)

my cam is ok , not really any bumps or anything , just wear marks ,,,

so what do you guys think?

Post some pics...

Hopefully you numbered your cam caps so you can put them all back in the exact same place they came from. Yes, crap sometimes gets in the oil and will gouge out metal wherever it gets stuck. Just a good reminder to use high quality filters and change the oil at regular intervals.

yea i took them off one by one , and one side at a time,, also dotted a paint dot to show the orientation,,

dont have no pics cuz i put the cams back in so i can start the timing,,

at this point they are being used,, once i put internals in the engine, ill have to bite the bullet and buy new heads from modmax

Cam bearing caps should be smooth. Not good.
Most likely due to some metal flakes floating around in there, but WHY is the real question..
Just a.guess without photos. Second possibiliy is oil starvation, which is even worse.

This does not sound good. Post some pictures

How many miles on the cams?

164,000 miles
i think it was oil starvation,, it looks like someone was in there before to do the timing because it looked all but new , so my guess is the oil pump was replaced and or the roller followers and or all were replaced and no oil prime was done before first startup ,
this is obviously only a guess as i wasnt there ,,,

im gonna pull the cams out again this weekend so i can take pics , the passenger side isnt as bad as the driver side ? but non the less ill have pics up by Saturday

ive also seen on some videos that this "scoring" is normal for the 4.6 and 5.4 3v as the cam floats by a thin layer of oil , and upon startup the cam is all but dry while spining for a few moments , which , over time and hundreds of starting the car will result in this scoring?

whitmanink said:

ive also seen on some videos that this "scoring" is normal for the 4.6 and 5.4 3v as the cam floats by a thin layer of oil , and upon startup the cam is all but dry while spining for a few moments , which , over time and hundreds of starting the car will result in this scoring?

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Reasonable theory. But I would tend to believe maybe oil change interval was stretched a bit to add to startup damage.
Now dont start changing your oil every thousand miles either. If the car is used mostly short trips, like less than 30 minutes, i would do 3-5k intervals. Our commute used to be almost an hour each way, I went over 10k a few times without any ill effects. Just to give you an idea.
A PCV delete, breathers only is also very hard on the oil, and more frequent oil changes needed.

Ps: I run mobil 1 or supertech full synthetic.

this is all the drivers side,,, also the worst side,, as you can see , the cam towers Arnt scorned much at all , including the caps,, the cams tho ,,,, whooooooooo,, i guess i should order some stock cams

whitmanink said:

this is all the drivers side,,, also the worst side,, as you can see , the cam towers Arnt scorned much at all , including the caps,, the cams tho ,,,, whooooooooo,, i guess i should order some stock cams


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Everything that I see has the brown glaze on it so I would think nothing has been replaced. I wouldn’t replace anything if it’s working properly, just change your oil every 3-5 thousand miles.
If you “need” new cams I have my factory cams still 75,000 miles

i found a set of stock cams for $180 , i think im gonna go that route to make sure it will wear more even ,,(im hoping) unless others have pics of what there cams looked like, id rather replace these,, as you can feel the ridges in the cams

btw , the timing was all but new, the roller followers seemed newer as they were all in pretty good shape,,but who knows for sure?

I just finished a complete rebuild on my 07. The rule I went by is if you can run your thumb nail across without it catching you will be fine. I was going to change cams, but there didn't seem to be a real advantage other than sound. LITO got a pretty good lope on the tune. So I'm glad I didn't dump $850. If your ridges are deep the heads are junk. If money is no object the ported heads with the brenspeed cams would be a good buy. I put 20 hours in rebuilding and porting mine. If you got the time and patience it can be done for $400.

i ordered stocl cams @ $180 from parts geek, im gonna run 5w -30 to make up for wear,, and when i change my oil again ,, ill look for shinny stuff ,, if i find it ,, ill pull the valve covers off and see whats going on , and at that point, count on buying new heads

Looks like you have the older style roller followers. Since you have the cams off it wouldn’t be anything - but the cost of getting them - to just put a set of new style ones on there. It should help keep better oil pressure as well.

If not that, pick ‘em all out and give them a good inspection. Wiggle the rollers and such. All mine looked good… but when I took them out to put updated ones in there I found half of the followers had play in the rollers.

Food for thought.

yea,, i got a timing kit,, new roller followers , new head gasket, new vvt's, new cover gaskets, intake ect ect, new hoses, thermostat, spark plugs, .new oil pump , water pump. i figured might as well while im in there, plus i dont know what was done as far as maintenance, so i crossed my T's and dotted my I's