Camshaft bent?

Another question...

When I disassembled the engine I’m rebuilding the exhaust camshaft wasn’t coming out easily and I might have been too aggressive getting it out. (I knew I had another one from another head and at the time I didn’t care too much.)

I’d like use that cam if possible. The only ways I could think of to test for straightness:

- Use a straight edge with feeler gauges and compare with my other cam. That wasn’t easy since the lobes aren’t equally flat on any given plane. In any case, the two cams seemed the same.

- I installed the cam in question on a head and rotated to see if there was any binding. It seemed ok. However, that head still had the valves so there was reasonable resistance from the springs. But it all seemed the same throughout the rotation.

Is this adequate enough testing to confidently use it?

 

Cams generally don't bend, they shatter; reason being they need to be as rigid as possible to avoid cam timing issues that would arise from them actually bending, since almost all camshafts are driven from one end. If you really want to test this properly, remove the valves from the head.

 

You have the camshaft caps oriented the correct way and in the correct order right? You didnt swap caps between heads did you.

 

They are the correct orientation/position and I used the caps from the head they belong to. However, the camshaft I was testing was from another head.

I may take out the valves as Enki suggested. Now is the time to check if I’m going to check...

 

At this point it's probably worth doing for peace of mind

 

It would be easier to set the cam on a couple vblocks with a dial indicator

 

I wasn’t able to easily get the valves out with the ‘bang a socket’ method or a ‘push down with a vise grip’ method. And I don’t have a valve removal tool. So I decided to put both camshafts in the head and hope it’s ok Both camshafts feel identical turning so I’m feeling ok with it.

 

God damn bro dont ever ever get valves out that way. Use the right tool.

 

Valve spring tools are pretty cheap.

 

Doesn’t the Lisle tool work on the same premise? I had magnetised the socket so the keepers would be less likely to go flying

 

Indeed, this one made my life pretty easy. I did it while watching tv