Picked up a used cam for my brother. Agreed with seller if it is not usable I will get my money back. The seller had the used cam sitting out of car for some time, and the cam developed little rust, which was more severe in two places. So I used WD-40 and a rough cloth to get the rust of. Everything came of, just in the place where the rust was more pronounced, there is a very small surface roughness on a cam, its not on the part that touches the bearing, but on the part that has lifter on. If run my nail across that spot, I can barely detect it, and it cannot be detected with my skin. Should the cam be used or returned? I don't want to collapse my brother’s lifter or worse.

Tomas

 

yes, a regular stock roller lifter

 

also I was wondering if when installed, shouldn't the lifter polish and smoothen the little scratch after a couple days of running?

 

i dont think it would cause a problem as long as you used assembly lube and changed the oil a few miles after the swap. it wouldnt sem to me that it would affect a roller lifter like it would a flat tappet.

 

thanks, looking for a couple more people to agree with Evil Eric before I put that bad thing in as a Christmas present for my brother's camaro. However this would look bad if he would have a blown motor as a gift because of a bad cam. And I am leaving to CA, he won't have an older brother to fix his car anymore

 

I wouldn't worry but if you're really concerned you could always take it to a machine shop and see what they say. They may just polish it out for you for $10 or something.

 

Use an emery cloth or VERY fine grit sandpaper and work slowly. You should be able to polish the the right up.

 

Should be fine, we have pulled cams out of running cars with way worse damage.

 

thanks everybody, so far its a go, unless somebody has some bad news

 

nice to see a friendly face from HPT posting on here.

i agree that if its not on the bearing you shouldnt have a problem with it. looks like your good to go man.

 

I've always used a very fine sandpaper grit with metal polish. Never had a problem with rust and nicks/ scratches.

You will be fine as long as nothing is protruding from the lobe to interfere with the roller on the lifter.

-Shannon

 

After you polish it make sure to clean it up with mineral spirits or the likes to get off every single last piece of dirt and grit, then lube her up and ram it in, hehe.

 

it should be fine, you should see the cam i pulled outta my car this week, it had spots that had like 1/4 inch peices missing, it has been like this since i had the car (march) and who knows how long before that, i never noticed anything