I spun my built VVT motor's #2 rod bearing on Monday due to oil starvation (that's a different story detailed in my build thread). The rod knock started about two blocks from my place and I was able to limp it home and have the car off in a little under 5 minutes. So far, I'm going to be replacing the crank, bearings, #2 rod (and possibly the others if need be). I'm curious for your guys' thoughts if I'm ok reusing these cams/head. Only three of the cams/caps showed scoring that I found potentially concerning. Pics below. None of the gouges fully catch a fingernail.





Thanks in advance for any insight!
-Zak

 

Polish to knock the high spots off, and good to go.

I've done wayyyyyy worse to a VVT head, and after a lot of clean up, it's worked fine running heavy double springs and up to 9K RPM.

 

That’s just what I was hoping someone would tell me. Thanks man

 

How did you polish it?

 

1000 grit sand paper, by hand on the camshaft itself, then 1500.

For the caps, I used dremel Dremel EZ Lock Finishing Abrasive Buffs, with low RPMs to get them decent, then hand work with 1000 and 1500 to get them super slick. I made sure there were not high spots on the cam, or the journal. There were low spots from metal being torn off, but those just fill with oil and were not a problem for me.

Once sanding was done, I scrubbed with soap/water/rags to get the abrasive particles out of the metal, then cleaned and oiled and back together.

 

Pat: Perfect - thank you for the detail and will help the poster.

 

Make sure you pull the oil galley plugs out of the head and clean it well.