Camshafts/Cylinder Head - Rabbit Hole!

[EwanG]

[quote="draenog"]As others have stated, your cam cap ordering is correct. Here's some pictures I took when I adjusted the valve clearances a couple of years ago. You should be able to see the numbers stamped into the head, hidden on your picture by the cam cover gasket. On the exhaust side, from the timing chain, the sequence is 6 - 10.

Thanks Rohan, very helpful! I still need to painfully scratch off the "goo" that the remaining partial gasket is attached that will reveal those numbers!

[EwanG]

"5. ...A simple quick check is to swap the cams and see whether the issue moves with the cam or not

cheers
Rohan

Thanks Rohan - I will do some measuring and try the cam swap test!

[EwanG]

It’s a 2 second job to visually check the groove to see if it has a step in it caused by wear so for the effort involved it’s worth doing

Thanks 2cams70, I only noticed one lobe with a tight clearance but will be going back and re-measuring and inspecting to ensure that there isn't a deeper underlying root cause.

[EwanG]

"5. The Cam lobe between #1 and #2 Cam bearing caps is incredibly close to touching the head (right hand front edge). I can just squeeze my smallest feeler gauge 0.002" between the edge when cold (car won't start so don't know what happens when hot . The lobe isn't marked so I guess its missing but its close. The other lobes all have decent clearance"

It appears to be just one lobe that has the small clearance which suggests its not wear on the cam thrust groove which would be causing all the lobes to move and be close. Careful measurement of the cam lobe locations versus the cut outs locations will tell if its the cut out that is poorly positioned (seen that) or the cam lobe that is poorly positioned ( seen that also)

A simple quick check is to swap the cams and see whether the issue moves with the cam or not

cheers
Rohan

Hi Rohan, I did that quick swap and found the issue is with the lobe positioning rather than the cutouts, good call out. It does seem to be an original Type C camshaft (one groove). In the long term I may upgrade the camshaft but for now I guess I can ensure that the cut out is adjusted to provide some additional clearance. Thanks,
Ewan