RV8 Cam / Followers experts please advise!!!!

[CaptiV8ed]

Stripped down the top of the Chim's eninge today, with a view to see if there was any obvious wear in the cam and valve train, as with a mechanic's stethosocope, a definate tick could be heard on no 1 Cyl and it can be heard under load and overrun when driving.
Question is, can a worn cam be seen while in situ? I have 2 pics below with a couple of lobes in view, but it's hard to see shoulders being formed on the cam. The (believed) noisy lobe appears to have a more etched / grainy finish than the others, but they're not looking squared off. The follower is dished on its under side but the wear is even and seems to be the same on all followers on the N/S bank - haven't got to O/S yet!
Rocker pads show some wear, but none are missing. For info, car is a 99 500, 39k miles, all std I believe.
I would be most grateful for any help or tips and I appreciate that the pics probably are nothing like seeing it in the flesh.

Here's hopin'

Nick

[boosted ls1]

I can't read anything into the valley pics but the follower is utterly and truly well shagged. I've never seen a follower looking like that. Worst I've seen are a few tell tale wear marks.

Boosted.

[HarryW]

that follower looks horrible.

Out of interest I've never noticed before how the valley floor looks so rough around the cut out, almost as if its collapsed

[dnb]

That follower is about a 100 times worse than the ones I pulled out of my 100k mile engine.

[markh]

HarryW said:

that follower looks horrible.

Out of interest I've never noticed before how the valley floor looks so rough around the cut out, almost as if its collapsed

When my engine was rebuilt my valley looked the same, looked terrible I thought

[CaptiV8ed]

Thanks for your replies. All I can say is that the flash of the camera has made the follower look horrendous. It does have a slight dish on it's face, but this is evenly worn and not all that deep (could be too deep though!) The black look about it is due to the flash. Secondly, the crud in the valley is most certainly due to the fact that the top side of the valley gasket was a mass of peeling crusty stuff. Some of it may have fallen during removal.

Edited by CaptiV8ed on Monday 16th April 07:50

[Nacnud]

From what I'm told, RV8 cams have a life expectancy of about 50K; so your cam is unlikely to be the one it left the factory with.

On my SEAC, a rolling road session diagnosed a shagged cam - 60K miles
When they pulled the cam out 2 lobes were so badly worn that I could put my little finger between the top of the lobe and the callipers set to the original lobe height.
The lobes are surface hardened and once the hard stuff is worn away the rest of the lobe gets eat very quickly.

[corky]

I have just changed my cam on my Griff @56k, I can strongly recommend Jamie at Castle Engines. My followers looked as bad as yours and i have kept my cam for posterity, (to add to my F1 tyre!)2 of the lobes were complety flat, that clearly explained my misfire but neither the TVR dealer or very good indie could diagnose the problem that had been plaguing the car over a 2 year period.

[v8sag]

Sorry to but in,but since we are on cams,where would I see the markings/stampings to make sure the right one was put in after a rebuild,what do I need to take off?

[CaptiV8ed]

I think they're stamped on the end, I'm not sure which. If it was the rear, you'd have to take it out, if on the front, you'd be looking at timing gears and everything at the front of the engine to get to them.

[350matt]

Being as you've got the access to the followers you can set up a DTi to measure the cam lift directly on the outside edge of the follower, I don't know what the lift figures for your cam should be but all the inlets and all the exhausts should be the same.
Chances are its new cam and followers time

Matt

[CaptiV8ed]

There must be some psychic stuff going on here! I've just come in from the next part of the strip down and have just completed what 350Matt was suggesting! And lo and behold, both in and ex lobes on no.1 piston (the noisy one when listening with a stethoscope) were in the region of 5mm less lift than the others! I don't as yet have a DTI guage, but using an engineer's rule I got a fairly accurate measurement. 5mm! That's a flippin shed load. There was also considerably less lift on no.6 cyl too, although that wasn't noisy.

So, at the risk of sounding redundant, does anyone think I need a new cam????!!!!!!!

[corky]

CaptiV8ed said:

There must be some psychic stuff going on here! I've just come in from the next part of the strip down and have just completed what 350Matt was suggesting! And lo and behold, both in and ex lobes on no.1 piston (the noisy one when listening with a stethoscope) were in the region of 5mm less lift than the others! I don't as yet have a DTI guage, but using an engineer's rule I got a fairly accurate measurement. 5mm! That's a flippin shed load. There was also considerably less lift on no.6 cyl too, although that wasn't noisy.

So, at the risk of sounding redundant, does anyone think I need a new cam????!!!!!!!

I reckon you do, but i am no expert

[CaptiV8ed]

Shall be speaking to V8D today....