camshaft lobe flat what now??

[jeepsr4ever]

When we are talking about a cam lobe going flat their is no amount of cleaning that will get rid of the microscopic particles better than a oil filter. Remember this is a not distributor gear or other large metal chips. When a cam lobe goes flat the metal softens and desinegrates...doesnt chip. Hope that helps

[Goose]

More importantly.. that Cam lobe didnt go flat yesterday.. It has been grinding away for a looong time..so what damage there is ..is done long ago. probably 6 or 7 oil changes since it started. Coming from the Small block chevy world.. Flat cam lobes are almost as common as changing spark plugs..

the sludge in the pan can trap some of the heavier particles. which is why I suggested that.

[fifesjeep]

No-way man... I would've torn the engine apart and had it flushed and then a dip in the tank... (but that's me). He said "it is a relativley new motor and i would like to run it for a while if i can".... That's not sitting with me too well!!!
I broke in a cam in one of my old 304's and ground either #1 exhaust or #3 intake lobe flat and dished the lifter deep enough to puncture a hole in it... And that didn't take no time... Maybe 4 to 6 hours of totally run time and she was cooked... I drained the oil and sure enough it came out blackish-brown with particles... the oil felt gritty... Once a cam lobe or lifter starts going it goes quickly... (Depending on how it is driven. But, needless, it goes quickly once the hardened case is gone... especially at what speeds the cam runs at). Now, if it (flat lobe/Dished Lifter) happened over a period of time and it didn't get driven much and the oil was changed before the 2000-3000 mark then I can sort of see your point... (depending on how much one trusts his filters/engine/luck).
But, maybe it's me.. maybe it's just good practice but... Anytime you have harmful foreign particles in the oil it's a bad thing and I wouldn't trust any oil filter to protect my investment knowing that there are harmful particles floating around... And seeing that they're like metals and there's a lot friction happening they're going to get magnetized and they'll ended-up in every nook-&-cranny... And those particles will gather in a location until they can't stick no-more due to the mass of particles and flow of oil and when these little particles (which gathered to become one big particle) move and get stuck in a lifter or pushrod or oiling hole there's going to be bigger problems... But, to one his own... I highly doubt that his filter filtered all of the metal particles... It's Common sense really... What percentage of oil actually gets purified as the car is running at Highway speeds?... You or somebody should call the manufacturers and see what they say... (If they'll even say). I've tried but to no avail they keep giving me different numbers to call or they'll give me an address to write/email... Fram is real good at avoiding this question..

[76-cj7]

I think i'll agree with MC on this one considering i purchased a 76 CJ-7 with a 304 and Summit cam. The dumbass before me destroyed 3 of the Summit cams in the same motor before deciding to sell the jeep because he was too stupid to figure it out, he also put .040 bearings in the bottom end when it was a stock sized crank too You can imagine my aggravation when this was found out. I dont know what he was doing when he decided to "rebuild" the motor as he put it. He even went as far as Harland-Sharpe roller rockers that didnt help along with grinding the tops of the valves even to the keepers to try and fix the valvetrain problem.

[93dps]

like i said in my first post,iknow tearing it down all the way and cleaning it would have been the best way to go,but so would have been replacing it with a 360.like i also said that isnt an option right now.i spent about 200 bucks and a few days under the hood and lurking in here and im driving it now.if it grenades tommorow im just out a couple hundred bucks and some time.then ill try to find a 360 or put a small block chevy in it.im just saying there is a lot of good info on this board and not a whole lot of BS like on some of the other boards.