Chipped Camshaft

[tcp88]

I was doing a timing belt/water pump/all belts change and when I took the camshaft sprocket off I saw that the part of the camshaft, where the stud of the sprocket hooks in, was chipped.


I'll post in a picture in a bit.
It's a 1989 325ix Auto.




Is that a big deal? I mean the car worked fine before. Not fine, it was slowish, slow to accelerate but that could of been a lot of things that I'm fixing right now.

[jlevie]

We need a picture to be able to say if this is a problem.

[tcp88]

[ATTACH]110806[/ATTACH]

[uturn]

That would bother me for a long time, however it looks like you can put the cam back on as the pin on the sprocket would still line up and not move around.
Or....
Justification to buy a new Schrick cam in the higher lift you wanted!

[tcp88]

Everything spun fine before I took it off and I certainly did not inflict that damage in the removal process.

Far as I know.

[Northern]

Not saying this is the right decision, but assuming it doesn't come close to the cam seal(which it really looks like it does...), I'd dress it out until it was smooth and uniform and just run it as long as there aren't any cracks visible after.

Wouldn't worry about balance or anything, just if it's going to fail or damage the seal.

[jlevie]

I'd say that is enough damage to justify replacement of the cam. It might work for a while as is, but if the index pin fails the cam will jump timing and bad things will happen to the valves and pistons.

[tcp88]

I got my timing belt on and I did a full rotation by hand and I'm not sure if I'm being crazy or not but I swear I hear scrapping from inside the head.

Probably not at all related to the chipped cam but alarming all the same.

[tcp88]

Putting my fan back on, the fan arms hit the crankshaft nut at the bottom, anyone experienced this?

[ahlem]

Only when I had it lined up crooked as I was attempting to thread it on. Leftie tightie, rightie loosey on this one.