Trying to track down my elusive grinding noise I took the gear off, found nothing, but putting it back together I discovered this...
Do each of these pics look right..

First is the cam with the retainer installed, should the cam be flush with the retainer as in this pic?
http://hometown.aol.com/onebadwskier...amretainer.jpg

This is the back of the ED LT4 cam gear, the inside flat surface with the 4 groves cut in the + formation will be sitting right up on the cam retainer as noted in the next pic.
http://hometown.aol.com/onebadwskier...ocket-back.jpg

This is with the cam sprocket installed, it doesn't have the bolts or chain on it, but it is all the way on with the rear flat surface up against the cam retainer....notice the position of the wp and sprocket gear, the rear surfaces of both gears are flush/even with each other..if the sprocket went down any further the gears would hit the wp shaft retainer.
http://hometown.aol.com/onebadwskier...tstogether.jpg


Even though the cam sprocket is all the way on as far as it can go since its hitting the cam retainer, there's still a 1/16-1/8" gap between the back of the sprocket and the cam mounting surface as shown in these 2 pics:
http://hometown.aol.com/onebadwskier...rocket-gap.jpg
http://hometown.aol.com/onebadwskier...ocket-gap2.jpg


I would guess that when the sprocket bolts are installed and tightened it would pull the cam out against the sprocket mounting surface?? If not and its pulling the sprocket in tighter on the cam retainer, then thats probably my noise as it does have some shinny wear marks but nothing major and its only on one side of the retainer, not all the way around.

 

Put the bolts in it and pull it together carefully and see what the play is and if it turns OK. If it's allright, then assemble it - use some blue locktite on all those bolts ont he cam and retainers.

 

How about a more detailed straight on photo of the wear marks on the retainer plate and the sprocket?

My engine is currently apart. I looked at my cam retainer plate and there is a very faint rub from the cam sprocket with only a few more marks on the sproket itself. There appears to be way more of a rubbing problem from looking at your first photo.

Maybe someone will chime in on this.

 

All it is is a little shinny, there's no wear that can be felt and its not all the way around the complete circular surface on either the sprocket or the cam retainer.
It took me quite a while to get the sprocket back on where the bolts would line up with the chain on it or I'd try to snap some pics of it, those I took I thought would show it but they don't because of the lighting.
But its really nothing that is concerning me, I installed the bolts and tightened them down, the cam was pulled toward the sprocket during this process, so those surfaces are definitely contacting each other some as the cam tries to walk back toward the rear, I guess those surfaces keep it from doing that...

Everything rotates fine without any binding or grinding right now.

Are the back of the sprocket and the cam retainer suppose to contact each other some as the cam walks back toward the rear??

 

My guess is yes but barely, like I said I have a trace of this and mine was bone stock before teardown.

 

The wear pattern on the cam sprocket and retainer plate seem normal to me. The wear marks on the gear teeth on the cam sprocket seem somewhat strange.

Did you change the gear in the WP drive? The ED timing set comes with a new gear to replace the small WP drive gear. The grinding noise could be gear noise. Is it very loud?

When I installed my ED timing set I remember having some gear noise at the very beginning but it disappeared in a short while.

RG

 

Yes they will touch each other a bit. Put the cam retainer plate on and then the cam gear. you should still have endplay in the cam. You can check this with a dial indicator up against the cam gear and pry the cam out. Set your dial indicator to 0 and push the cam in. You should have no more than .010" but no less that .004" clearance. (I think thats factory spec, I'll have to double check when I get home tonight). If you have that your good to go.

One thing to check I found with my motor. Make sure there are no burrs or gouges on the block where the cam retainer bolts up. I had a small nick on the outside of the machined surface that caused a small bump in the machined surface. This caused the cam retainer to sit funny when it was bolted up. That caused the cam gear to make contact with the retainer in 1 spot every revolution. This would have caused a horible noise I am sure.

I had to file down the nick in the block to make the surface flat again. I then check endplay and I had .005" endplay in the cam.

 

I do not know if it was changed as I did not do the install.

Does anyone have a close up pic of the ED LT4 wp gear? I thought I read somewhere that the theeth are cut at a 45 degree on the front and back surfaces of the gear, and mine were not.

 

hehe, since I took it back apart to change out the wp gear...here's your pic.
Does this look like normal wear?

 

Here is mine from my bone stock never previously touched LT1:


Big difference from what I see but I cant see if this is a problem. I am going to bolt my stock LT1 cam sprocket on the stock cam and LE1.5 cam with the retainer sandwhiched in place and check for clearances and drag.

I was also told by a engine builder that roller chains in general make more noise due to design, thats why the GM used the link chain to make the engine more quiet. Also you can take both chains, stretch them taught and shake them, the roller makes more noise.

 

something isnt right there. All the wear is in 1 spot. Thats telling me that the cam retainer plate is not sitting right. you should not have any wear marks on that retainer like that. And if you do they should be even all the way around. Pull the retainer off and check the block machined surface for flatness and for any debris or marks...

wrd1972's is normal. It has a little wear but not much. Yours has a huge wear mark on that one side... Something is wrong

 

I'm betting my retainer is also the stocker, as I'm sure a new one was not installed since they didn't bother with the wp gear as the back of the ED LT4 gear only has a small wear mark right at the inside edge as could be seen in the pic of it in the original posting, and not the entire face like on the cam retainer. If its the stocker, it has 90k miles on it.
I don't see any imperfections under the cam retainer on the block surface as mentioned by ProjectZ28 and checking it the best I can with a metal straight edge, but thats about all I have to check it with.

 

did you check your endplay? You need .004" min camshaft endplay.... I double checked and stock specs are .004-.012" for endplay. You need to check this.


Oh, and there is nothing wrong with the stock retainer. I still have a stock retainer on my new motor I am building. All it does is keep the cam from walking out. Older SBC's used the timing cover as the "retainer" but not this one.

 

Your picture is the cam side, which is normal for there to be wear.

There should be NO WEAR on the cam sprocket side. I'm not sure what's wrong (never seen that before), but something isn't right.

 

This is definitely the SPROCKET side, I checked the diameters of the marks with a calper. The cam side has a similar but smaller diameter amount of wear too.

I bolted up the stock cam and sprocket with the retainer in the middle, free play is .007" as told by th feeler gauge.

I then bolted up the LE1.5 cam with the LT4 ED sprocket with the retainer in themiddle and the free play is .009" as told by the feeler gauge.