Camshaft Rust/Polish Question

[bergie33]

I was inspecting my camshaft this morning before installing it in the head.  Most of the lobes seem to look good, there is no lip between the the wear surface of the lobe and the area outside that wear surface.  There was however a sizeable amount of rust on the heal of the last lobe.  While the nose surface is in good shape, the heal had lots of rust.  I was able to sand away the rust on the heal of that lobe with 400 grit sandpaper then clean up with 800 & 1000 sandpaper then 000 steel wool.  It looks good, but I'm not sure if this is an acceptable fix for the rust.  Looking at the other lobes seems to indicate that the rocker arms don't even really contact the heal of the lobes, is that typical?  If that is the case, then my rust removal from the heal of that lobe shouldn't be an issue? I didn't do any sanding where it looked like the rockers contact the lobe.  Let me know what you think.

 

Second question, it looks like this cam could use a quick polish, can I do that myself with a good cloth and some autosol, or should I take it to a machine shop to have them do it?

[jireland2002]

Your cam looks fine.

[TobyB]

Agreed. 

 

If you want to be safe, use a 'break in' oil

with enough ZDDP for your first starts,

and don't let the car idle in the first few runs.

The 'instructions' say to hold 2k rpm, but all they

really mean is keep oil pressure up- ideally, on

the regulator.

 

t

 

[stephers]

Yes you can polish it your self, use some red brillo pad  to do it, you can spray some brake clean as you do it for a lube.        Make sure that you clean it well before installing, use some oil on the bearing surfaces when installing it

 

Thanks, Rick

[bergie33]

All great answers, just what I was hoping to hear.  Thanks!

[Son of Marty]

When it's altogether leave the valve cover off and flood the oil all over the valve train it'll make you feel good, also before you install the distributor pour a table spoon or so of the oil to fill the well in the bottom of the housing. install the valve cover and crank it with out plugs until the oil light goes off.

[Mike Self]

There's also stuff called "assembly lube" that's thicker than oil but thinner than grease that you put on high wear areas when assembling an engine. 

 

Since the greatest metal-on-metal pressure in the engine occurs where the rocker arm pad meets the camshaft lobe, that would be a good place for assembly lube, or lacking that, follow Son of Marty's advice and be liberal with oil in the upper cylinder head area before installing the valve cover, then crank the engine 'till the oil light goes out (remembering that the factory oil pressure warning light goes out at 7.5 psi).

 

mike