You can get a cam for under $200.00....You have the motor tore down...It's not 2k..... buy once ...cry once....

 

Look, I hate changing cams. I put a cam in a defender years ago. new cam flattened out 100 miles later. Thought I learned my lesson. I put a BRAND NEW long block in a 4 runner last year, used 10/30 Castrol GTX and a bottle of chevy ZDDP. Cam flattened out a couple months later. Put 2 brand new (Ex/Int) $450 JoMo 15 race cams in my Triumph Tiger. Castrol motorcycle 20/50 bottle of ZDDP, I now have a $450 paperweight. That's my camshaft relationship story.

 

RMT,

So what is the point you are trying to make here? Perhaps I missed something? Are you saying you used old lifters with new cams and they failed? Are you saying Castrol oil is no good? Chevy ZDDP is no good? Wondering what the point to your comment was?

Were you just venting your frustration with camshafts?

 

Part venting, part just sharing experience. The EPA is trying to get catalytic converters warranted for 10 years/100k miles. All the zinc, lead, molly, etc. in the oil that is great for your flat tappet cam ruins the cats. Oil companies cut the good additives in 1/4 to try to comply. So the solution is to add the good stuff back in with a bottle of ZDDP. (the factory chevy stuff is supposed to be the best) Pretty much if the cam looks good, and the bottom of the lifters look good, I would rather put new lifters on an old already work hardened cam than put new lifters on a new cam. If the lifters are concave on the bottom and the cam has v shaped brown marks on the face, you have to replace the cam and lifters or the work hardened old cam will destroy the new lifters. (the brown v shaped part of the cam is the part that is not touching the lifters anymore. It WILL touch the new lifters, maybe it will only touch the lifters on the brown part since the shiney part is worn more than the brown part.) If the cam looks good and the old lifters are not beat up on the bottom, I would leave well enough alone, and just change the lifters. With good oil and frequent changes the cam shouldn't wear at all. My parents 96 RR has over 200k on it, the cam looks like new, I just did a valve job on it and it had 1 flat lifter, I replaced all of them, no problem.

 

RMT,

You appear to have bad luck, but thousands of cams get replaced every year without the problems you have had.
I replace over a dozen cams in bikes every season and use nothing more than plan assembly lube and have NEVER had one come back whipped out. Yes some cams do get thru with out being hardened and we have all heard the storys, but it appears every cam you seem to get managed to get out of the factory without being hardened.

The simple fact is people come here to learn and you should not be telling people to replace lifters without replacing the cam or or cams without lifters,it's just plan poor practice and against every cam manufactures recomendations.

 

Huh?

I gave an account on how 3 of the dozens of cams I replaced died instantly. You can put new lifters on an old cam. I have done it a zillion times. It's not a big deal. But when you put a new cam in your motor because you want to put new lifters in, its a crap shoot on weather you get that "soft" cam or not. I'm not telling anyone to do anything, I'm stating facts.

Hey, what bikes do you work on?