After doing valve cover gasket we found: Rust on 1 lobe & grooves in between 2 lobes

[choppper]

Hi There,

Last night my buddy helped replace my valve cover gasket. Among doing so we noticed one lobe had what looked like rust/wear and inbetween two different lobes on the other cam we found weird grooves. Take a look at the pics if possible and let me know what you think of this? The car runs fine with no weird sounds during idling/revving. It has 160,600miles on it and was leaking oil from the half moon area in the back of the engine. Sorry if this is somewhere else on the web I searched google and this site.

Thanks here are some images!

[B72011]

Replace flat tensioner and half moon seal. Your engine likely sat for awhile with condensation under the valve cover gasket. I wouldnt worry about it really--no big deal.

[choppper]

Is the flat tensioner what is causing the grooves? I haven't heard of that. I bought a cam chain tensioner but didn't replace as I had no wear in my VC or slack in the chain.

[omakayd]

I think they're recommending to change it while you're there because you mentioned the leak from there.. Good idea to do it with vc gaskets.
The grooves I'm unsure of but the cam lobes should probably be sanded down with a very fine sandpaper just to clear the rust.
You don't want to be scuffing the lifters with that rust and causing a bigger problem later on.
The lobes and lifters are a high friction area, so being very smooth is a good thing.

[choppper]

Damn I put it back together last night after doing the VC, I didn't want to do the tensioner as it was late and I worked early. How scary could this ordeal be, I know it has pretty high miles on it, is it something I should urgently take apart and fix do you think?

[Coors]

Damn I put it back together last night after doing the VC, I didn't want to do the tensioner as it was late and I worked early. How scary could this ordeal be, I know it has pretty high miles on it, is it something I should urgently take apart and fix do you think?

With a 160 on the clock, If you don't have any drivetrain chatter don't let it bother you.

[choppper]

With a 160 on the clock, If you don't have any drivetrain chatter don't let it bother you.

Coors, you say drivetrain chatter - As in hesitating/vibraration sometimes on acceleration? It almost seems like sometimes there a little vibration while getting up and going, it may be the roads to or unbalanced wheels... you saying drivetrain chatter makes me curious haha!

[omakayd]

I think he means valvetrain chatter. like ticking.
If it were me, I'd sand those down. but it's your car.

[Coors]

Is the flat tensioner what is causing the grooves? I haven't heard of that. I bought a cam chain tensioner but didn't replace as I had no wear in my VC or slack in the chain.

Those grooves could have originated from the casting process.

I don't see how anything "rotational" on the engine could interfere with the particular section of cam.

[Coors]

I think he means valvetrain chatter. like ticking.

Precisely.

[choppper]

Omakayd - Thanks for clarifying that, I don't hear ticking. I learned from experience with my B5 a4 dont run castrol or you hear lots of ticking, I always run M1 0W-40. This car defiantly sounds good while idling though IMO. I know where your coming from, my buddy said the same and that we should do the tensioner for the chain but I figured if I can wait maybe I will just because theres always another issue that comes up lol.

Thanks for the input Coors, I feel better with your opinion, thats what I thought to it didn't look like anything in my engine could cause that but I had to be sure!