Comp cam @ 5,000 miles

[VADER SS L99]

It's not just the whine that people are talking about being the problem. It's destroyed lifters and cam lobes as well. Many of us have had that issue with no whine or warning before hand.

[strych9]

Originally Posted by Kip Fabre

OK, to “break in” a roller cam? I don’t think so. Ours don’t need breaking in. Maybe we are missing something? If we are, please let us know. Our cams are made of 8620 AQ steel. (Aircraft Quality Steel) The lobes are ground and POLISHED just like the factory GM, FORD or any other car manufacturers that makes cams for their engines. It’s not the oil. It’s not the spring pressure, even at 450lbs over the nose. It’s not how aggressive the lobe profile may be. It’s not the lifter preload. It is the finish on the lobes. Lobes that are not finished well can make the valve train WHINE. I think all cam manufacturers have seen that. We made cam like that about 9 years ago. We also went through steel that was not as good as what we use today and had some problems with lobes breaking down. We replaced the cams for two years with cams made from the new higher grade steel. The lobes break down because the steel is not as good as it should be for the application and the finish quality of the lobe surface. The roller wheel on lifters is mostly made of bearing quality steel (52100). They are precision ground and micro polished. These roller wheels have a crown ground into them, they are not flat. The reason they have a slight crown ground into the roller wheel is mainly to allow for any kind of lifter bore misalignment. If the roller wheel is riding on a lobe that is not polished it will not be making 100% contact or even close to 100% contact. If the surface is not finished well it may only be riding on 50% of the surface which will cause high Hertzin stresses, which will cause SPALLING, and that is what you see when a cam lobe starts to flake off.

Why are there so many problems now? It may not be that many, but if it is yours then it’s too many. In the older days when someone wanted a performance cam it was usually a flat tappet. It either worked or wiped itself out. All roller cams were mostly for racing. Cam companies would grind race cams and the racers would race. Most had open headers and if the cam had some chatter (which all on them did) on the lobes or it was not finished well you would never know it. Most engines now have roller cams and with stock exhaust or headers with mufflers it’s very easy to hear if there is a problem with a cam or lifter noise. Now cams must be finished to the same quality of the stock cam. If not, there will be problems as we are seeing here. The steel used for the stock factory engines works fine for the stock lifts and spring pressure, provided it is finished properly. The same steel used in after market cams as well as in the factory cams should work fine in most of these street applications. However I would not want to use it in turbo charged, blown, road racing, or high lifts or open spring pressures over the 500lbs.
en a cam lobe starts to flack out.

Excellent points.

[Kip Fabre]

Originally Posted by VADER SS L99

It's not just the whine that people are talking about being the problem. It's destroyed lifters and cam lobes as well. Many of us have had that issue with no whine or warning before hand.

It can be a rough finish and not whine. Any high spots can start a brake down on the lifter or the cam. Once that starts it's over. Some of the cam cores we bought years ago we're tested. They had high sulfides in the steel meaning not clean steel.

[christianchevell]

Yes thanks Kip, for speaking up from a place that sells cams and makes them, nut what I am wondering if the quality is there for comp cams core with its having aircraft grade quality steel, and if its recommended so fervently by Driven that they had a 300% drop in cam failures from breaking in cams with driven oil I am on the safe side myself, I used to do flat tappets in my sleep with EOIC ( exhaust open intake closed) etc etc . Now everything is rollers and its only going more high tech for the future, and many say no break in necessary.....while many say yes be smart....why not do a break in as other parts need it anyway and I WANTED TO BE SAFE, as things are not cheapo on a LS3 like a SBC. And this is the internet people from anywhere with a problem are going to come here, and yes do wonder about various cams quality of where they are getting their blanks too......... And think comp cams must be using aircraft quality steel as hey cams sure cost enough now adays, yet its hard to find any info on cam blanks for them or well any other place really.
And I know a break in for cam is the safe thing to do as that's how I raised myself building hot rod engines< I always did break ins, and well if you follow the driven story they were losing 1 in 10 cams now its 1 in 40 with a break in with good oil....now whose cams they were I don't know as joe gibbs is nascar and I do not know what they are running.

There was a post here a while back of people with whining cams... more than few, and some even had more than one whining cam before they got a good one and it was like WTF? I am a oldster and never had a bad cam ever, so I think its because this is the internet where we can gather for info as where else are you gonna go? thanks again for info, I know I did not think too much of the pressure or aggressive lobes angles of failure and thought more of the quality of the steel..........
Any info I can gleem as others is a real help, and we have to wonder where x company gets its base stock that is just put into service without even us the end consumer knowing where the heck its from......... I for one will always try to break in a cam if I think its good. Why not be safe is my motto. And while heat treating the springs, dyno tuning it, and hoping the rings in the little lifters roller seat and seal well and hey if nascar is doing 30 minute break ins why not lil ol me makin 550 h.p.? I have a small budget. Anyway heres that bulletin from driven and it makes sense to me given what I could hear from their experience and knowing how oil has been reformulated so much and is going to be again I as all of us should be safe and choose oils as wisely as we can and in 2017 is reformulating again to most likely remove more zddp and make oils even less viscosity.......

http://www.drivenracingoil.com/news/...-break-in-too/

[thahemp]

Joe Gibbs Joe Gibbs Joe Gibbs Joe Gibbs Joe Gibbs Joe Gibbs Joe Gibbs Joe Gibbs Joe Gibbs Joe Gibbs Joe Gibbs Joe Gibbs Joe Gibbs Joe Gibbs Joe Gibbs Joe Gibbs Joe Gibbs Joe Gibbs Joe Gibbs Joe Gibbs Joe Gibbs Joe Gibbs Joe Gibbs Joe Gibbs Joe Gibbs Joe Gibbs Joe Gibbs Joe Gibbs Joe Gibbs Joe Gibbs Joe Gibbs Joe Gibbs Joe Gibbs Joe Gibbs Joe Gibbs Joe Gibbs

[NinoSS]

Originally Posted by thahemp

Joe Gibbs Joe Gibbs Joe Gibbs Joe Gibbs Joe Gibbs Joe Gibbs Joe Gibbs Joe Gibbs Joe Gibbs Joe Gibbs Joe Gibbs Joe Gibbs Joe Gibbs Joe Gibbs Joe Gibbs Joe Gibbs Joe Gibbs Joe Gibbs Joe Gibbs Joe Gibbs Joe Gibbs Joe Gibbs Joe Gibbs Joe Gibbs Joe Gibbs Joe Gibbs Joe Gibbs Joe Gibbs Joe Gibbs Joe Gibbs Joe Gibbs Joe Gibbs Joe Gibbs Joe Gibbs Joe Gibbs Joe Gibbs

[IamBATMAN]

What did you do with the old cam?

[BFASTNOTLAST]

Originally Posted by IamBATMAN

What did you do with the old cam?

It's on it's way back to Memphis. I will post any results or useful info as I get it.

[2010abmss]

Originally Posted by Rhino79

What, a failure with LS30, please don't tell ChristianChevelle!

[2010abmss]

Originally Posted by lsuguy

Not to threadjack but my Comp cam has 5,000 miles on it too. Amsoil Signature and Redline for the life of the cam and oil change intervals probably averaged 1500 miles in between.

My carnage didn't stop at the camshaft but I won't go into those details here.

You must not have broken that in properly!

[GR8WHITE1]

Originally Posted by christianchevell

Yes thanks Kip, for speaking up from a place that sells cams and makes them, nut what I am wondering if the quality is there for comp cams core with its having aircraft grade quality steel, and if its recommended so fervently by Driven that they had a 300% drop in cam failures from breaking in cams with driven oil I am on the safe side myself, I used to do flat tappets in my sleep with EOIC ( exhaust open intake closed) etc etc . Now everything is rollers and its only going more high tech for the future, and many say no break in necessary.....while many say yes be smart....why not do a break in as other parts need it anyway and I WANTED TO BE SAFE, as things are not cheapo on a LS3 like a SBC. And this is the internet people from anywhere with a problem are going to come here, and yes do wonder about various cams quality of where they are getting their blanks too......... And think comp cams must be using aircraft quality steel as hey cams sure cost enough now adays, yet its hard to find any info on cam blanks for them or well any other place really.
And I know a break in for cam is the safe thing to do as that's how I raised myself building hot rod engines< I always did break ins, and well if you follow the driven story they were losing 1 in 10 cams now its 1 in 40 with a break in with good oil....now whose cams they were I don't know as joe gibbs is nascar and I do not know what they are running.

There was a post here a while back of people with whining cams... more than few, and some even had more than one whining cam before they got a good one and it was like WTF? I am a oldster and never had a bad cam ever, so I think its because this is the internet where we can gather for info as where else are you gonna go? thanks again for info, I know I did not think too much of the pressure or aggressive lobes angles of failure and thought more of the quality of the steel..........
Any info I can gleem as others is a real help, and we have to wonder where x company gets its base stock that is just put into service without even us the end consumer knowing where the heck its from......... I for one will always try to break in a cam if I think its good. Why not be safe is my motto. And while heat treating the springs, dyno tuning it, and hoping the rings in the little lifters roller seat and seal well and hey if nascar is doing 30 minute break ins why not lil ol me makin 550 h.p.? I have a small budget. Anyway heres that bulletin from driven and it makes sense to me given what I could hear from their experience and knowing how oil has been reformulated so much and is going to be again I as all of us should be safe and choose oils as wisely as we can and in 2017 is reformulating again to most likely remove more zddp and make oils even less viscosity.......

http://www.drivenracingoil.com/news/...-break-in-too/

Why does every post from this guy involve talking about driven racing oil, give it up it's getting old.

[strych9]

Originally Posted by 2010abmss

You must not have broken that in properly!

I'm absolutely amazed that an OIL MANUFACTURER claims that you need to use THEIR break-in oil for a roller cam. If you go to Comp Cams website and pull up the instructions for installing their cams, oddly enough, the flat-tappet cams have a specific break-in procedure listed in steps. The instructions for the rollers don't even mention a break-in procedure anywhere on the document.

If my cam manufacturer doesn't tell me that I need to break in my roller cam, I'll take their word over an oil producer any day of the week. Will the oil people warranty my cam if it fails? Yeah, I didn't think so.

[VADER SS L99]

Originally Posted by christianchevell

Yes thanks Kip, for speaking up from a place that sells cams and makes them, nut what I am wondering if the quality is there for comp cams core with its having aircraft grade quality steel, and if its recommended so fervently by Driven that they had a 300% drop in cam failures from breaking in cams with driven oil I am on the safe side myself, I used to do flat tappets in my sleep with EOIC ( exhaust open intake closed) etc etc . Now everything is rollers and its only going more high tech for the future, and many say no break in necessary.....while many say yes be smart....why not do a break in as other parts need it anyway and I WANTED TO BE SAFE, as things are not cheapo on a LS3 like a SBC. And this is the internet people from anywhere with a problem are going to come here, and yes do wonder about various cams quality of where they are getting their blanks too......... And think comp cams must be using aircraft quality steel as hey cams sure cost enough now adays, yet its hard to find any info on cam blanks for them or well any other place really.
And I know a break in for cam is the safe thing to do as that's how I raised myself building hot rod engines< I always did break ins, and well if you follow the driven story they were losing 1 in 10 cams now its 1 in 40 with a break in with good oil....now whose cams they were I don't know as joe gibbs is nascar and I do not know what they are running.

There was a post here a while back of people with whining cams... more than few, and some even had more than one whining cam before they got a good one and it was like WTF? I am a oldster and never had a bad cam ever, so I think its because this is the internet where we can gather for info as where else are you gonna go? thanks again for info, I know I did not think too much of the pressure or aggressive lobes angles of failure and thought more of the quality of the steel..........
Any info I can gleem as others is a real help, and we have to wonder where x company gets its base stock that is just put into service without even us the end consumer knowing where the heck its from......... I for one will always try to break in a cam if I think its good. Why not be safe is my motto. And while heat treating the springs, dyno tuning it, and hoping the rings in the little lifters roller seat and seal well and hey if nascar is doing 30 minute break ins why not lil ol me makin 550 h.p.? I have a small budget. Anyway heres that bulletin from driven and it makes sense to me given what I could hear from their experience and knowing how oil has been reformulated so much and is going to be again I as all of us should be safe and choose oils as wisely as we can and in 2017 is reformulating again to most likely remove more zddp and make oils even less viscosity.......

http://www.drivenracingoil.com/news/...-break-in-too/

I don't mean to give you offense but every single post of yours is way too long. (I admit this one is not nearly as bad as most). I don't even read them any more because almost every time is a huge long post on why we should all use Joe Gibbs LS30 oil. If I was someone who didn't know how good that oil is or much about oil, your post would have me looking at other oils. That's how annoying they are. If your affiliated with Joe Gibbs somehow you really need to go about your support in a different way because at this point you might actually be hurting them rather than helping. Just my opinion of course and some friendly advice.

disclaimer: Joe Gibbs LS30 oil is a very good oil to use if you have internal engine mods so don't let my above post make it seem otherwise.

[VADER SS L99]

Originally Posted by GR8WHITE1

Why does every post from this guy involve talking about driven racing oil, give it up it's getting old.

dammit, this guy basically got my long post point across with a shorter post while I was posting it. Ironic. LOL