Cam journals caps broken!!! 4 out of 5 journals busted in half!!

[98blackstallion]

OK guys i posted awhile back about my motor being blown. Well I have started to tear it apart and found that all but 1 cam journel cap have been split in pretty much half on the driver side of the engine.. And the cam journels themselves are all grooved and scratched up!...ITs like the cam tried to jump out of the head and when doing so broke the caps. I have never seen this before but i then went to the pass. side and everything was looking great. So i dont know what the crap is going on...How could this have happened? Im confused guys...help me please..

 

[BlackenedSVT]

U do a cam swap and not properly torque the caps? Other than that... I'm not really sure how that could happen.

I see you have my old car (not literally). I miss my 98GT sometimes. Nice car man

 

[Mike97gt]

thats interesting... was there severe PTV contact

 

[03ghoststang]

thats interesting... was there severe PTV contact

thats what i was thinking but also like mentioned above about the cams thingy

 

[Mike97gt]

thats what i was thinking but also like mentioned above about the cams thingy

Yeah I am sure eiter one of those could have caused this. I have never personally seen them break the caps off.

 

[Stang|ess]

thats interesting... was there severe PTV contact

he has vt stage 1 cams. I thought they don't even have to be degreed and he still won't get ptv.

 

[Spiggs]

I have only seen this happen one time, when an engine seized. However, when that happened, it also blew a hole in the cylinder side wall.

and by the way, it wasn't on a 4.6

 

[trinity_gt]

If the journals are all "scratched up" perhaps you had an oil starvation issue. What do the main and rod bearings look like?

If the cam was seizing in the head maybe it could've somehow busted up the small, thin caps...

 

[stng]

Sounds to me like one of two things happened, either you didnt torque the caps properly or there was something wrong with the cam shaft from VT when you installed it...

 

[Cantslowdown]

Man you have had those cams in for awhile...Sounds almost like a lack of oil or being over reved..But thats crazy..Sorry mang

 

[98blackstallion]

Yeah Man it sucks ass....but i just ordered crower stage 2 cams and now i am forging the lower end so that i can feel safe with the nitrous and i am having valve reliefs in the pistons so that makes me feel safe too.

 

[ProjectJ]

I have never seen this with a 4.6, but many designs of OHC heads (namely alot of BMW engines) have been known to sometimes break the cam bearing caps clean off due to the head warping (d/t overheating for instance). That's why alot of shops won't resurface OHC heads if they are very far out of spec (b/c cutting the surface back to flat is only half the battle). Did this thing just come apart and stop running one day or did you have a failure and keep driving, possibly overheating it (trying to limp it home)? Again, that's not to say that was definitely it, it's a remote possibility at best... just putting another idea out there for consideration.

 

[98blackstallion]

well regardless of what happened to the old motor i just placed an order for an MMR forged short block with stage 2 heads and stage 2 crower cams and 11.2:1 compression...WOOHHOOO!!!! I cant wait to get it running, I hope I will break the 310rwhp bracket!

 

[speedytang]

I have seen this on OHC 4cyl. engines when the valves float and the cam followers lock up and lift the cam which breaks the cam caps.

 

[ProjectJ]

well regardless of what happened to the old motor i just placed an order for an MMR forged short block with stage 2 heads and stage 2 crower cams and 11.2:1 compression...WOOHHOOO!!!! I cant wait to get it running, I hope I will break the 310rwhp bracket!

Problem Solved. That's my favorite way to fix things too