New member here. I hope this topic isn't already covered. If it is, I apologize.
I have seen Northstar engines with this same symptom, and am wondering about it. I'll get into why I'm wondering in a minute.
It seems that the exhaust cams wear dramaticallly, showing both lobe wear and tappet wear. But not on all lobes and not on all tappets. It seems to usually be the tappets toward the middle of the head that show the most wear. Yet, these engines were, and are, perfectly good running engines. Were it not for my being aware of this wear, I'd think the engine was in great shape.
The intake cams don't seem to have this issue. Strange, isn't it?
I am currently doing head gaskets on a 98 Northstar engine, and it has this, what I see as, typical cam wear. This is my wife's car. I did head gaskets about 7 years ago, knowing that I'd probably have to do them again at some point. At that time, there was no really good fix for the bolt problem.
This time, I'm using studs, and it shouldn't be a problem anymore.
Last time I did the gaskets, the car had less than 100 K miles on it, and I did not notice much lobe wear. This time, it has the lobe and tappet wear I mentioned.
Yet, if the head gaskets hadn't started to leak again (three bolts came out with the aluminum threads still stuck to the bolts - no surprise) I would have expected this engine to run indefinitely.
It looks like iminent cam failure. But is it? Is this a sort of normal thing that I can just ignore rather than have to spend 800 bucks on two new exhaust cams?
That is my question. Just how serious is this really? I'm thinking of replacing the right side cam with new, and let the front go because it wouldn't be too difficult to change with the engine in the car.
Wondering if anyone has any helpful comments on both the cams, and my plan.
Thanks so much. I should add that the car now has a little over 200 K on it.
Mark D.
I have seen Northstar engines with this same symptom, and am wondering about it. I'll get into why I'm wondering in a minute.
It seems that the exhaust cams wear dramaticallly, showing both lobe wear and tappet wear. But not on all lobes and not on all tappets. It seems to usually be the tappets toward the middle of the head that show the most wear. Yet, these engines were, and are, perfectly good running engines. Were it not for my being aware of this wear, I'd think the engine was in great shape.
The intake cams don't seem to have this issue. Strange, isn't it?
I am currently doing head gaskets on a 98 Northstar engine, and it has this, what I see as, typical cam wear. This is my wife's car. I did head gaskets about 7 years ago, knowing that I'd probably have to do them again at some point. At that time, there was no really good fix for the bolt problem.
This time, I'm using studs, and it shouldn't be a problem anymore.
Last time I did the gaskets, the car had less than 100 K miles on it, and I did not notice much lobe wear. This time, it has the lobe and tappet wear I mentioned.
Yet, if the head gaskets hadn't started to leak again (three bolts came out with the aluminum threads still stuck to the bolts - no surprise) I would have expected this engine to run indefinitely.
It looks like iminent cam failure. But is it? Is this a sort of normal thing that I can just ignore rather than have to spend 800 bucks on two new exhaust cams?
That is my question. Just how serious is this really? I'm thinking of replacing the right side cam with new, and let the front go because it wouldn't be too difficult to change with the engine in the car.
Wondering if anyone has any helpful comments on both the cams, and my plan.
Thanks so much. I should add that the car now has a little over 200 K on it.
Mark D.