Cams disintegrating

[Jabbah]

Main options are Andy at APM or a TVR Power rebuild with the 3 year warranty. Any others?

[Jhonno]

Str8ight 6..

[Jabbah]

Is it worth doing anything else on top of replacing the camshafts though? I expect it is an engine out job, so what else should I consider doing whilst it is out?

[tangerinedream]

Any idea what has caused this (or is it just age/mileage)?

[Jabbah]

No ideas. Engine has done 55k though.

[Steve_T]

Presume you're doing the buckets with the cams?

[gruffalo]

Jhonno said:

Str8ight 6..

Second vote for STR8SIX, they did my engine and it is superb.

I also believe that Dom uses Andy for a lot of his AJP work so they are mostly the same option.

[Jabbah]

Steve_T said:

Presume you're doing the buckets with the cams?

I haven't managed to talk to anybody about it properly yet, but that makes sense.

[Jabbah]

gruffalo said:

I also believe that Dom uses Andy for a lot of his AJP work so they are mostly the same option.

Yeah, that's what my garage said. I was thinking more straight to Andy for just the cam work, or to Dom for a full rebuild with the warranty... Cams only / Full rebuild ?

[gruffalo]

My choice would be neither and go to talk to Jason at STR8SIX.

Great service good warranty and a talented engine builder.

But that is just my choice.

Can't advise on the top end vs full rebuild as I don't know what the bottom end condition is like.

[tofts]

The only way to know if your needing more than just top end, is to do a leak down test and check a cap or two on the bottom end. Downside is you can't take the sump off in the car so it's difficult to say. Cams can be changed in the car and if you have no other overiding issues and then this may be the straight forward option. I had a cerbera through for a rebuild and it had about the same milage on (54k). There was nothing wrong with the bottom end, pistons were/are still in spec, clearances on mains/big ends were below tolerance and no major signs of blow by. The rebuild was, really, unecessary.

Take that as you will but it may help influence your decision. These are strong engines, the breakdown of the cam may just be down to a manufacturing fault and nothing more.

Jody

[m3coupe]

I contacted Jason the other week about an AJP rebuild however apparently they are really busy and not taking on any new rebuilds and are fully booked up until late September.

[dkwiscrazy]

could be slighty worse

[Jabbah]

dkwiscrazy said:

could be slighty worse

Ouch yeah that looks nasty. Did that happen whilst the engine was running?

[Jabbah]

As the cams can be done with the engine in and in general it seems pretty solid I'm just going to go down that route. Question now is how safe is it to drive 40 miles? It looks like it isn't brand new damage, so on the one hand it probably won't make much difference to drive another 40 miles on it, on the other it could be just about to get worse. Would you get it trailered?

[ukkid35]

Jabbah said:

As the cams can be done with the engine in and in general it seems pretty solid I'm just going to go down that route. Question now is how safe is it to drive 40 miles? It looks like it isn't brand new damage, so on the one hand it probably won't make much difference to drive another 40 miles on it, on the other it could be just about to get worse. Would you get it trailered?

Totally safe.

The cams are trashed, but that only affects performance not reliability.

You'll be fine, it will all workout perfectly

[spitfire4v8]

Is that the worst cam .. and does the follower still look ok? If so it'll probably soldier on for 10s of thousands of miles .. seen many similar cam lobes over the years but only changed a handful of cams in 20 years ..

as always though ymmv ..