Somethings off...

[jballou]

Now I know why the car came to me on a flat bed..

[Cacti]

Supertech or ferrara?

[zillarob]

Hate it when that happens

Driver side like usual?

[jballou]

Supertech or ferrara?

Neither. Stock motor.

[jballou]

Yeah drivers side.

[jjvwg]

I don't think that'll do much lifting!

[zillarob]

Yeah drivers side.

Thing looks clean in there like they take care of it oil-wise.
Does it see a lot of high rpm action?

[Cacti]

retainer give out?

[zillarob]

Cam went flat and chewed through the lifter. Very common on the driver side.

[Audimilo]

That little guy?

wouldnt worry about that lil guy

[Peter1.8t]

Weight reduction

[morris400]

Why is this common?

I had the same issue on the same side on mine too cupple years ago.

[zillarob]

Not sure anybody really knows for sure. Junk oil or running it to long could be a cause.

My best guess as to why it is always the dside is the oiling system and the direction the cams rotate.
There is a pretty good pic of the 2.7 oiling system in the ssp.
It shows the pside head fed directly from the main oil galley, but the dside head is fed from one of the crank mains.
The heads sit at an angle with oil flowing down from the center over the lifter.
The cams spin cw when looking at the front of the motor.
The pside cam is rotating the direction that the oil is flowing and basically drags the oil through the contact area. This is good.
The dside cam rotates opposing to the oil flow and is pretty much always trying to push it away from the contact area. This seems to be not so good.

[ama]

Not sure anybody really knows for sure. Junk oil or running it to long could be a cause.

My best guess as to why it is always the dside is the oiling system and the direction the cams rotate.
There is a pretty good pic of the 2.7 oiling system in the ssp.
It shows the pside head fed directly from the main oil galley, but the dside head is fed from one of the crank mains.
The heads sit at an angle with oil flowing down from the center over the lifter.
The cams spin cw when looking at the front of the motor.
The pside cam is rotating the direction that the oil is flowing and basically drags the oil through the contact area. This is good.
The dside cam rotates opposing to the oil flow and is pretty much always trying to push it away from the contact area. This seems to be not so good.

Theres not much you can do to fix this, i also noticed that its almost always driver side head.

[gdoggmoney]

Caught a few 1.8T motors close to this with obvious wear. Sure in this case the 2.7 oiling plays a role, however high ZDDP oil needs to be run or flat tapper motors do this and flatten cams out fast

[morris400]

cam lobes on exhaust cam cyl 4 went flat on mine and dishes both lifters causing cyl 4 to grenade and put a hole in the piston. that day was shitty.

[jballou]

So then I guess I should fix this.

[MalibuMafiaV]

Jesus... and I thought only a few bent valves were a big deal. Wtf is wrong with this stupid B5 S4.

[zillarob]

Meh, that shitll buff out

Hes lucky it didnt knock the valve locks out and do the same as morris.
Looks like that job just got expensive though

[james 408]

omg stop. my eyes. there wasn't any disclaimer about grotesque imagery on this thread. I haven't been this upset since I saw Hotel Rhwanda's bumpy road scene.

why aren't cars all dry sump? lost a motorcycle engine to oil starvation at g's too =( I'm assuming that's what causes the excess wear on the cam?

[zillarob]

I dont think it is starvation or it would happen on the pside also.
Being that it always starts on the dside makes me think a design thing.

[jballou]

So, the lesson of the day. If you have loud ticking noise, address it immediately. I knew what it was when the customer showed it to me. I told him to stop driving the car. He did after the car wouldn't run anymore.

[Peter1.8t]

Yea the 29v conversion sucks