Wiped cam lobes - What happened?

[Blair German]

These 2 lobes on cylinder 2 of my exhaust cam are severly damaged. One is completely destroyed, the other is wiped. The lifters are damaged, one is concave, the other has grooves in it. The concave lifter under the severely damaged lobe was completely locked – it would not compress till I hit it with a hammer a few times. The other lifter was too easy to compress – squishy.

Anyone know what may have caused this? It is only on cylinder 2. All the valves and springs are fine. The intake cam, lifter, and valves are fine. The block is fine. Everything else on the head is fine. I’m just assuming these 2 lifters failed and damaged the cam, although I don’t know why only on this cylinder. I’ve got a new cam and 8 lifters on the way, but I just wanna make sure this won’t happen again. I’m waiting on a sping compressor to replace the seals and also will throw on a cct for good measure.

I did have a seriously clogged injector on this cylinder for a bit, but other than that I can’t think of anything specific to this cylinder that could be related to this issue. I only noticed this when I pulled my head to install a head gasket – loss of compression on cyl 2 – 90psi. I assume this was due to exhaust valves not opening all the way.

(the history on the head and block is unknown. The engine was “replaced” by the po)

Also, I noticed my intake lifters have a directional groove worn in them. I thought they were supposed to spin?


Anyone’s input would be appreciated!

[vwchuck]

Is that a made in china head? It appears that the cam and lifters that come in these heads are junk. You need to run OEM cams and lifters. The rest of the head is decent though.