Cam lobe discoloration normal?

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Heres more pics with a regular drop light

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71DodgeDemon340 said:
Heres more pics with a regular drop light

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Using your last (bottom) picture as an example you can clearly see the thin line around the base circle. That is perfectly normal for a hydraulic lifter.

The two lobes with the nose showing look normal too, but it’s interesting to note that as the cam wears in over the nose that shiny area over the nose will get to be as wide as the lobe. That’s normal too.

I’d send it and not lose any sleep.
 
Rat Bastid said:
Using your last (bottom) picture as an example you can clearly see the thin line around the base circle. That is perfectly normal for a hydraulic lifter.

The two lobes with the nose showing look normal too, but it’s interesting to note that as the cam wears in over the nose that shiny area over the nose will get to be as wide as the lobe. That’s normal too.

I’d send it and not lose any sleep.
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Yeah its weird, with the light directly on them they just look polished but any light at a angle and they have a blue hue to them, it does appear to look a lot more blue with the led lights vs the regular drop light
 
Looks perfectly normal. Before you button it back up, smear some lube on the cam lobes and call it good.
As others note above, you could go lighter on the oil weight and get back to one of the oils noted.
And if all else fails, you can just park that beautiful car with its title in my garage...
 
Once the cam is broken in, 1200 ppm of Zinc is plenty fine with a stock or mild spring pressure street cam.
 
Like stated before, if its not blue to your eyes. Its fine. I would drain the oil, then put 1-2 quarts of oil in it. I would get a priming tool and with the intake off run the oil pump. See if all the water is out of the oil galley. Once you see mostly clean oil bleeding out of the lifter bores and the heads. Might not hurt to let the coolant settle in the pan and drain it, until oil comes out. Add a bit more and repeat. I would let it sit over night and drain the oil out. Get as much water out as you can. The rest will boil off. Water right? Not coolant? Been there myself, but just water.
 
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318willrun said:
Once the cam is broken in, 1200 ppm of Zinc is plenty fine with a stock or mild spring pressure street cam.
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I think that's a fair statement. In fact, I'll go further. IMO, once broken in and a good wear pattern established, any good synthetic "should" have enough ZDDP to do the job. It's at break in that it's critical to have extra ZDDP.
 
71DodgeDemon340 said:
Hey guys, finally got started on my slow coolant leak from my intake, got the intake off, got everything cleaned up for the most part. Still a little oil and coolant i have to get out of the valley, I just had a question about the discoloration on the cam lobes, does it look normal?

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also hows the wear look on the rocker arm rollers?


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Gonna try to button up the intake tomorrow before the cold weather moves in
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Discoloration on wear surfaces' is never good. Replace to be on the safe side.
 
71DodgeDemon340 said:
What would you guys recommend?

The mobil one 15w-50 shows 1200 ppm phosphorous and 1300 ppm zinc. Also list the 15w-50 for flat tappet applications

should i be worried about it?
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You are wasting your money for that Mobil one. 15W50?
Your engine will be better off with a quality high zinc Dino oil 10W-30.
Was your intake coolant leak to the inside or outside of the engine?
 
RustyRatRod said:
I think that's a fair statement. In fact, I'll go further. IMO, once broken in and a good wear pattern established, any good synthetic "should" have enough ZDDP to do the job. It's at break in that it's critical to have extra ZDDP.
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I dont remember for sure but i think they used redline break in oil. Ran it for a little while with that in it once the engine was installed then changed it for mobil one
 
furrystump said:
Like stated before, if its not blue to your eyes. Its fine. I would drain the oil, then put 1-2 quarts of oil in it. I would get a priming tool and with the intake off run the oil pump. See if all the water is out of the oil galley. Once you see mostly clean oil bleeding out of the lifter bores and the heads. Might not hurt to let the coolant settle in the pan and drain it, until oil comes out. Add a bit more and repeat. I would let it sit over night and drain the oil out. Get as much water out as you can. The rest will boil off. Water right? Not coolant? Been there myself, but just water.
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The only time it looks blue is when viewed from a angle with light on it, it definitely looked worse with my led flashlight. When a light is on it you can get a blue hue at certain angles but with just the ambient light it doesnt appear to be blue.
 
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I contacted the engine builder just waiting for him to get back in touch with me so i can send him the pictures of it, i know some things are hard to tell in photos.
 
furrystump said:
Like stated before, if its not blue to your eyes. Its fine. I would drain the oil, then put 1-2 quarts of oil in it. I would get a priming tool and with the intake off run the oil pump. See if all the water is out of the oil galley. Once you see mostly clean oil bleeding out of the lifter bores and the heads. Might not hurt to let the coolant settle in the pan and drain it, until oil comes out. Add a bit more and repeat. I would let it sit over night and drain the oil out. Get as much water out as you can. The rest will boil off. Water right? Not coolant? Been there myself, but just water.
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there was only maybe 1/2 oz of coolant in the valley on the driverside front from pulling the intake, maybe less than tablespoon, closer to a teaspoon amount. the coolant drained for a day before i pulled the intake. Never have had any indication of coolant in the oil
 
don’t put any cam lube on a used cam, especially on that looks that good, look at the nose of the lobes, it looks great.

A thinner oil flows faster and cools better.

I don't know why everyone is stuck on 20/50 in a hot rod engine.
What really matters in choosing an oil weight is the oil temperature. If you don’t know that it’s all a guess. That’s a quote from Lake Speed Jr. look him up if you don’t know who he is.

You say it’s not blue to the eye so it looks great to me.
 
413 said:
don’t put any cam lube on a used cam, especially on that looks that good, look at the nose of the lobes, it looks great.

A thinner oil flows faster and cools better.

I don't know why everyone is stuck on 20/50 in a hot rod engine.
What really matters in choosing an oil weight is the oil temperature. If you don’t know that it’s all a guess. That’s a quote from Lake Speed Jr. look him up if you don’t know who he is.

You say it’s not blue to the eye so it looks great to me.
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You can see a blue hue at certain angles, if you but the light on it and look at it directly it appears to be just polished, but im not as experienced as most of you guys when you all have seen more cams then i probably ever will
 
71DodgeDemon340 said:
Yeah its weird, with the light directly on them they just look polished but any light at a angle and they have a blue hue to them, it does appear to look a lot more blue with the led lights vs the regular drop light
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That has to do with the material. Different metals have different colors to them. Chromium tends to turn an inherent bluish, while nickel has a yellowish tint. Other alloying elements have their own colors too. It's not so much a color, but the tint that the shiny surface tends to have.

The method of manufacture has lots to do with it too. No matter what you do, a casting (like a cam core) has some inherent porosity. This isn't a bad thing, the pores hold oil better than say a billet part. Then there's the treating of the cam - many are phosphated (comp cams does a really aggressive phosphate) which can get down in the pores, and even once the cam is burnished and polished, that phosphate can show up as a colored hue. Either dark brown, gray, or white-ish depending on the type of phosphate and the oil used. Even unplated the pores can shift the hue of a part, or make it look 'dull' or 'hazy' even when polished.

All that said, that cam looks good.
 
Phreakish said:
That has to do with the material. Different metals have different colors to them. Chromium tends to turn an inherent bluish, while nickel has a yellowish tint. Other alloying elements have their own colors too. It's not so much a color, but the tint that the shiny surface tends to have.

The method of manufacture has lots to do with it too. No matter what you do, a casting (like a cam core) has some inherent porosity. This isn't a bad thing, the pores hold oil better than say a billet part. Then there's the treating of the cam - many are phosphated (comp cams does a really aggressive phosphate) which can get down in the pores, and even once the cam is burnished and polished, that phosphate can show up as a colored hue. Either dark brown, gray, or white-ish depending on the type of phosphate and the oil used. Even unplated the pores can shift the hue of a part, or make it look 'dull' or 'hazy' even when polished.

All that said, that cam looks good.
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Well you guys have relieved me a bit, fwiw its a lunati voodoo cam
 
I thought you had a leak when running. Not just when you disassembled it.
 
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