Broken cam cap/journal..

BellyUpFish

Member
Well, more fun with my head gasket swap..

Was looking at one of the journals and found this...

I know I can't just swap the part for one off a junk yard vehicle, so anyone have any suggestions before I get creative with the JB Weld?





 

Muckman

Not a M0derator
Oo thats a weird one. What an odd place for stress to build up.

Two ideas:
1. because that piece is in the the middle and it only serves from stopping the cam moving horizontally, you could dremel it out. Remove that entire center section.
2. get another cam cap from another head and just run it. Its the far end cap and this is a non vtec head anyways.

The proper way to repair this would be to replace the cap from another head and have all the cam caps line honed. This would cost more than a silly non vtec head is worth so, replace the head.
 

BellyUpFish

Member
I'm at a loss as to how it broke there of all places.

If I had to take a guess, the gorilla who worked on this thing once upon a time "torqued'er down reaaal guud!"

I threw a timing belt too far from home and civilization. Let a local mechanic do the work.. Ouch at all his screw ups.. The list is fairly lengthy, of course 99.9% of it didn't show up until I pulled the head.

He lost and then fabricated (instead of ordering the $3 part) a new woodruff key for the cam gear.

How do I know he lost it? Well he left it in the head and after I took the head off, I had it laying upside down on a bucket in the shop, it fell out and my 3 year old found it.

"Daddy, wus dis?"
 

Nick_C78

New Member
You went to a good mechanic man.

Personally, I would just swap it with another cap from the same exact model year one. It is just a non-vtec head. Whats the worse that can happen. Actually, if I am being honest, I would take this as a sign that it is time to go LSVtec, but thats just me haha. If you want a cheap and simple fix, just swap it with one from the junk yard. You can always set up a plastigage type test for it to see how the clearances are across all the cam journals if you are worried. If the test shows that the clearances are close, just run the damn thing.
 


BigMac88

Fat guy in a little 'teg
Muck is absolutely correct. You can get away without a line hone if you junkyard another one.

I'm at a loss as to how it broke there of all places.
Someone over-torqued the shiz out of it dude. NBD just get a new one and you'll be ok.
 

BellyUpFish

Member
Don't think I'll be going LSVtec. I get my speed kicks out of a Trans Am and WRX. ;)

Integra is my get to work ride. ;)
 
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