s14 Ka24de Head question(s)?

[verSat1l3]

Ok a quick background: The car was smoking bad, liquid in the exhaust plus burning and leaking oil. I pulled the ka24de and auto transmission out and am going for a full rebuild plus swaping a 5spd back in at the same time. I am building the motor for turbo with lower comp forged pistons and forged rods. The turbo will come after the rebuild and break in.

The questions:When I pulled the cams earlier I noticed that the shims, buckets, follower s(whatever you call em...) has predrilled holes in the tops of *some* of them. I definitely remember that the ones in my s13 don't have those. I've got fouling in my combustion chambers and I'm trying to figure what was going on in the motor before I broke it open. Has anyone dealt with or seen these cam shim with the predrilled holes in them? Is that part of whats causing leakdown into the cylinders?

Heres what I'm talking about:



Whats with the holes in some but not in others? Which ones are original on the s14 heads?

Also I've noticed theres some scoring on the exhaust camshaft journals. I'm hoping the machine shop can do something with it because I really don't want to buy another head. I do have one from an s13 I could use, but I'd rather keep that as a spare.

Heres some combustion fouling:

warning <rant>I can tell someone has been into the motor before. It looks like they pieced it together and did a **** job with it. The top timing chain guard was broken off and wedged against the exhaust #1 cam bracket. How the oil pump hasn't eaten enough shards to kill it is beyond me... The bolts for the lower timing chain guide and tensioner were all messed up and way over torqued. I had to hammer an allen wrench in them because they were stripped and use a cheater bar to break them free... Fortunately I have spares *somewhere*. The driver side motor mount lower nut is stripped, and I will probably have to destroy the mount and remove it from above. Again, I hope I have a spare... The front main seal was leaking oil, the original alternator was stripped on the top. Some jerkoff put sr20 dressup pulleys on the power steering and fan so it was eating belts...

This car had better love me when I'm done. </rant>

[480sx]

Not sure of the purpose of those holes, but i do know that it couldnt be causing leakdown. They are on my s14 too.