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camshaft tapping again

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darren1970

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Just brought a mint astra 1.6 8v for my son,brought from an elderly gent with 66000 on the clock and a tapping cam.The bloke said he had the cam changed but lost the invoice.After buying the car and driving it home found the invoice for the new camshaft kit, belt,oil and filter.Was done in march this year at a cost of 475 pounds.It was moted in june with 63000 on the clock so cam was done at 60/62 000.

What can cause it to start tapping so soon ,blocked oil ways ,oil pump or the garage ripped off the elderly gent .
any info would be great thanks
 
Andy_Mk3 said:
Definitely the cam? Could be the hydraulic followers, or if it's the MPI engine it could be the injectors, they are particularly noisy.
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what this man said. My new 20ne has really tappy injectors that i thought was the lifters until i was told otherwise
 
Now theres a thing, my v6 taps like bruce forsythe on speed, never considered the injectors
 
Based on my assumption that it is the SPi, I would look at either the lifters or the condition of the thrust pads. I had a similar problem years ago, made a hell of a noise! The garage I took it to said the crank was bent... (alarm bells started ringing at this point) So I had a quick look myself, turned out one of the thrust pads was missing from when I did the head gasket.

In case you're wondering what the hell I'm bangin' on about, it's these little things. They sit on top of the valve springs.
maLPEYTuhPLyuRDrl2EDsXw.jpg
 
started the old ne conversion up tonite and yeah my injectors are bit tappy lol
 
Hi ,rang the garage that fitted the cam shaft kit,they said they dont offer a guarantee,but every kit ive had fitted in the past came with 12 months, and they remember the car and tried to make out it was done the year before ,but i have the reciept for march this year.They said the oil pick up pipe is blocked and not sending enough oil to the top.
Today i took the rocker cover off ,plenty of oil getting up there,but notice one of the cam lobes as been eaten away like butter. Scored all around and sharp egde on both sides of the lobe,all the rest are perfect, so i know this is the one making the noise.
Was told by the gent that the garage did an oil change and filter at the same time.Looking on the net found this . Do not use synthetic oil during the break-in period. which the garage did,
Photo0422_zps1f7ccbfd.jpg



What would of caused this in such a short time ie 3/4 thousand miles,faulty cam shaft,or using semi synthetic oil .
Dont want to pay to have another kit fitted if its some thing in the engine causing this ,by the way car drives great any info would be great thanks
 
Semi-synthetic oil is the ONLY oil you want to be using in these engines tbh. It's hard to tell from the pic exactly what damage there is. Cam scoring is usually down to oil starvation or debris though.
 
I thought debris as there is a score all around the center of the cam lobe,
yyyry_zps52342151.jpg
 
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Few thoughts. You're always supposed to run cams in at higher engine speeds say 2500 rpm plus to ensure the surface is correctly hardened for 20 minutes or something and not let them idle. I don't know how important it is but perhaps they didn't do it.

Remember that it is possible to change the cam without taking the head off. You can get a little tool that pushes the valve down and you can get the rocker out. Bit of a fiddle but better than taking the head off without needing to.

My experience these cams go on and on if oil is changed ok. I reckon synthetic is ok in them but interested in other opinions as it is what I use.
 
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