Cam journal destroyed... How do I fix it?!

[Bigred*]

So I had a valve cover that was leaking pretty good, I thought I had just done a bad job at sealing it cuz my engine was running perfect with no weird noises.. Pulled the valve cover off and I noticed where the leak had occurred my cam shaft and journal were very discolored, they were black? So I decided to pop off that Jornal and sure enough.. Well ill let the pictures do the Talking..










So how do I fix this? Or is there a fix?? Because I kind of figure my head is toast, so I was pricing out new heads already, which I really don't want to go that route considering I just paid $700 to have these heads completely rebuilt and they only have 600 miles on them. I'm half tempted to go back to my builder, i did a lot of the work myself but the heads were one thing I didn't wanna touch, I took him in my old heads, he brought back nice new shiny heads for me with the cams installed and everything(even though he installed my exhaust cam on the intake and intake cam on the exhaust on bank 1) but other then that I just bolted them on.. The head that had the backwards cams that I had to fix, that was the other head, not this one with the problem.. So I'm curious what caused this, bad oil clearance? Or that cap was torqued down to tight? Either way it's need to be fixed and looking for direction on where to go

Also if my head is a giant paper weight at this point and cant be saved what would be the side effects of putting it back together and driving it until I can afford a new head? Cuz im kind of in between jobs at the moment and really can't afford much right now until I start my new internship.. Being that it was driving great and sounded good, would I be ok for a little bit or is it just a ticking time bomb, and if it's the bomb, what would happen? My cam would sieze, maybe break my timing belt and take out other head too?

[Bigred*]

sorry I can't see to figure out how to make the images come in on the thread

[NolimitZ32]

I fixed the images for you, all you need to do is hit the [IMG] link in photoshop and paste the link it places on your clipboard, no need for additional stuff in the post.

As for your cam journal, it looks destroyed, generally cam journals are line bored to the cam so mix and matching off other heads is not going to work, however since you have only one damaged cap (hopefully the bore in the head is still good) you may be able to have a good machine shop fix it. That would involve removing the head however. if you have any way of getting the car to the machine shop (tow) and having them take a look they would be able to tell you as they know their abilities and the ins and outs of the work required and even if it is possible. Sorry for your bad luck man, let us know how it works out.

[DCaff300ZX]

With the mixup with the cams, I'd also suspect that the cap may not be the correct one from the correct head/cam as well....basically, in this case and if my engine I'd have never allowed this past discovery and would have been back to the builder for repair, and replacement if he ruined the head/cam. And even then, due to that mixup I'm not so sure I'd be happy to let the same guy work on my stuff again....that's a pretty bad mixup given that as NoLimit mentioned, these things such as caps and journals are super important to maintain the part sequences due to line boring and such that makes each piece individual.
I'd be very certain about things from this point on because you are facing a very serious issue, and NOT due to your input or work. Make people prove their work and correctness at each step moving forward, and try as best possible to know the correct answers and/or be ready to find them.

[schwar74]

Hope this isn't thread jacking, but if you can't mix and match cams, how do you ever put aftermarket cams in? Are they machined to match the head?

[nissanfreak12]

You can use a different cam in the head, you shouldn't use a different cap on that head. Those are specific for the head.

All though, it can be done, just not recommended. It could be catastrophic, basically what it looks like above. The problem with the OP, if the upper cap looks like that, the lower part looks just like the top, more than likely. He could attempt to use a different cap, but the clearances may either be too much or too little and will basically spin the bearing, so to say.

[schwar74]

Another question that I think is pertinent. Are the stampings always set up to be read from the outside of the motor, so from the exhaust side of the head? I was just reassembling my heads a couple weeks ago. The shop removed the caps and had them in boxes labeled L and R. When I assembled the first side, it dawned on me that the E1 was upside down, or so I assumed, and that the shop mixed up the r and l labels. So I assembled them so the stampings looked correct, and were right side up when read from the exhaust side of the head. The OPs pics show that the E1 stamping is right side up from the exhaust side, so it should have been installed correctly. Am I mistaken?

I'm just wondering if the oil feed hole may have gotten plugged on the journal and so it was oil starved and failed because of that.

[RubyRed300ZX]

A quick read of your thread.

A) Caps are mounted to the heads when manufacturing the engine. Heads are then line bored. As such anytime the caps are removed, they need to be reinstalled exactly as they were removed both in position and orientation. As for different or new camshafts, the journals are ground to the manufacturers' specifications. Depending upon the manufacturer, the grinding tolerance might be as tight as 0.0004" for diameter.

B) Didn't see were you mention if yours is a N/A or a TT. But, I did just see this on CL : http://minneapolis.craigslist.org/wsh/p ... 37010.html Not sure if he's competent to ship them (says Wisconsin).

[nissanfreak12]

B) Didn't see were you mention if yours is a N/A or a TT. But, I did just see this on CL : http://minneapolis.craigslist.org/wsh/p ... 37010.html Not sure if he's competent to ship them (says Wisconsin).

Not a packers fan I take?