Camshaft Inspection - Advice Needed

[mooserage]

Hoping some of you with more experience can provide some insight and help me learn a little about camshafts and typical/atypical wear. I've seen severely pitted camshafts and understand those can't really be used, but never seen cams with minor issues.

I purchased a set of cams recently and one is brand new and still covered in a (I assume) petroleum grease/substance to protect it from rusting.

The other cam is used and arrived without any sort of lubrication on it. Its not obviously pitted, but there is some surface rust on the lobes, haven't really touched it other than scraping with my finger nail to see if it'd come off easily (it didn't). So, is this still a usable cam? I was told these were clean/mark free, so I'm just trying to understand if I should go back to the seller, or if this isn't a big deal and I can clean them up with something simple.

Thanks for any info.

 

[thomcasey]

Any machine shop could polish that right up

 

[mooserage]

Thanks, this is the sort of thing I was wondering. So, I can take this to an automotive machine shop and just ask them to clean/ polish the cam? Assuming they do and everything looks decent, any suggestions on what I can put on the cam to protect it until it goes in the engine?

 

[thomcasey]

Yes, they can tell you if they are savable or not, but I am running a set that looked a bit worse and polished out fine. When storing them, Clean them of all grease and contaminants (maybe have the machine shop hot tank them fr you)spray them down with a silicone grease that will stick or rub them down with a quality bearing grease. Then cover them in some sealed plastic. The machine shop might actually do this for you if you ask.

 

[iceman69510]

If you want to, you can do it yourself. I have polished crankshafts before with emery cloth (sometimes called rosin paper also I think). Use lots of lubricant. Search the web for proper grit.

But as suggested, a shop might do it fairly cheaply.

 

[mooserage]

Thanks guys! I reached out to a couple of shops. One said they could probably throw it in a tumbler for $20 (Delta Camshaft), the other suggested some WD40 and a scotch pad should do the trick. Not sure which I'd rather do, but I would probably feel better with it in the hands of an expert.

It's good to know that its probably still usable though.

 

[kumfasa]

In my experience the experts care less than you do about your vehicle. I'm of the opinion, if you want a job done right, do it yourself unless it requires some very expensive specialized machinery.

WD40 and a scotchbrite pad and some elbow grease will sort out that surface rust no problems.

 

[Breakerrr]

Quote:
I purchased a set of cams recently and one is brand new and still covered in a (I assume) petroleum grease/substance to protect it from rusting.



Cosmoline. That's the substance. It's oh so nice if the parts are small enough to fit in the parts washer. It blows if they don't.