Tomei Cam Problem.

[Kansei240sx]

Ok, we were putting a set of tomei poncams for my friends RB20DET and we got the Exhuast cam seated into the head with the peg level and then turned 15 degrees.

Then we started putting on all the cam caps in order by just putting them on 1 2 3 4 etc etc.. We started by just putting them on and finger tightening the bolts on by one turn. As were putting on the exhuast cam STILL FINGER TIGHTENING the cam caps doing one turn at a time as to ensure that the cam itself was going down even we heard a sound like someone snapping thier fingers, ( note that the caps still had an 1/4th of an inch of gap still left between it and the head, so we were like... "what the hell was that?", did we break the bolt? So we started slowly taking them off and low and behold, the camshaft snapped clean in half.....

Now is it me or does that sound ****ed up? I mean... we didnt even apply ANY torque whatsoever, it was never dropped by our hands and was handled and lubed to seat perfectly. I dont know about you but an tomei exhuast cam thats about an inch thick shouldnt snap like a butterfinger.

Now, should we call the place we got it from and get another one? Becuase we did the exact same process on the intake cam and had not a problem, and now the OLD exhuast cam sits in place of the tomei cam since we cant wait. Now, i've installed cams and removed cams and installed heads and removed heads all that jazz. This has never happened. Thoughts, opinions?

[Joe]

where did the cam snap? got any pictures?

[Kansei240sx]

It snapped on the 5th journal, i will get some pics up when i head back to the shop

[Carl H]

outch that sucks ALOT.weird that it happened tho, but it has happened in the past, idealy you shouldnt load teh cam like you did, its kinda tricky to explain but it needs to be done very carefuly.you also need to do the cam install in the right order cuz if you dont it will break and when putting them in you need to be quick about it so the cam doesnt get bent out of shape and load up on one end.iirc the instructions that came with the cams tell you explicitly (well in japanese) that you HAVE to be careful with the cams, it is imparative that the cam is seated properly even before you put the cam caps on.sorry to hear but pics would be nice, i put my cams in myself without worry, went in and worked damn well...

[Kansei240sx]

We did it how the FSM in order told us, and we did the exact same thing for the intake cam and had no problems whatsoever. We put the stock exhuast cam in its place for the time being.