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Are my cam journals okay to use?

stev

Member
Joined
Jan 8, 2022
Location
Orange, CA
So I am rebuilding my head on my B230 and I wanted to clean all the parts in my ultra sonic cleaner except for the cam and head itself. After running all the valves, springs, retainers, etc through the machine I thought I should put the journals in aswell since the valve train came out so good. I used some degreaser concentrate in it and the metal came out darkened. The white spots are from unremoved corrosion or something but the journal surface isn't smooth anymore. I thought it was just a light layer of dirt but it won't come off even using brake cleaner. So any idea how I can get back the smooth surface again?
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If you run your nail over the bearing surface and you can actually feel ridges then it's f-ed up.
If not, maybe try a very fine cutting compound? You know, like they use for paint buffing. Only use some cloth for the bearing surface and an old tooth brush for the sharp corners and some manual labor.

Rinse them off with some penetrating oil to avoid getting cutting compound in the engine later on.
 
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If it's an alkaline solution you may have removed material. Try a dry mockup with no valves, and put plastigage across each journal. (line them up front to back)
 
Looks like you used some purple power (or something similar) at a high concentration. I'd hit it with some scotch bright and wash the parts in warm water. Then check the clearances, but they should be fine.

I left a piston in concentrated purple power for a month and there was no measurable material removal.
A caustic hot tank on the other hand would have dissolved the pistons in just a few hours.
 
What degreaser did you use? How long did you soak pieces?

It's some sam's club commercial degreaser but I looked it up online and it said it's not intended for soft metals such as aluminum. I think it was in there for 20 mins at 55C.
 
It's some sam's club commercial degreaser but I looked it up online and it said it's not intended for soft metals such as aluminum. I think it was in there for 20 mins at 55C.

If it foams when it hits the aluminum, that's a sure fire way of knowing the cleaner is dissolving the aluminum.

Do what MikeP suggested and assemble the head with a cam and some plasti gauge.
 
It's some sam's club commercial degreaser

Member's Mark Commercial Heavy-Duty Degreaser?
https://www.samsclub.com/p/members-mark-hd-degreaser-1-gallon/prod9260460


Ingredient disclosure (PDF)

Ingredients:

water
Sodium Carbonate
Tetrasodium EDTA
Sodium hydroxide :omg: :nono: :pow:
...and other stuff

<iframe width="842" height="468" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/uTgpcvGdyCw" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>
 
Member's Mark Commercial Heavy-Duty Degreaser?

Yeah that's the one. So I could only find the green plastigauge today after going to a bunch of different stores. Is that going to be enough to be able to tell if I am within spec or not? It really would suck if I have to scrap this head because I just had it resurfaced, -$60.
 
Yeah that's the one. So I could only find the green plastigauge today after going to a bunch of different stores. Is that going to be enough to be able to tell if I am within spec or not? It really would suck if I have to scrap this head because I just had it resurfaced, -$60.

Green will be fine. It'll tell you what you need to know.
 
I was told by a old timer about how some of the earlier redblocks had an oil passage to the head that would get gunked up and starve the head of oil. The cam would then lock up. They would clean up the cam and bores and the passage and run it. I had a similar problem with a 240 I saved that the PO had starved of oil and locked up the cam. It had several large gouges in the cam caps. I removed the cam, then put the caps back on and used a small brake hone on the end of a long extension to hone each one until there were no high spots. Since the cam bolt broke off in that cam I just slapped another cam I had in and put it all back together. It has been maybe 3 years now and my brother is still using that car to put around town in no problem. I had so many people on the FB group tell me that it wouldn't work. I would not worry about those clearances too much. As long as the cam spins free when you tighten them down, run it. IMHO
 
I was told by a old timer about how some of the earlier redblocks had an oil passage to the head that would get gunked up and starve the head of oil. The cam would then lock up. They would clean up the cam and bores and the passage and run it. I had a similar problem with a 240 I saved that the PO had starved of oil and locked up the cam. It had several large gouges in the cam caps. I removed the cam, then put the caps back on and used a small brake hone on the end of a long extension to hone each one until there were no high spots. Since the cam bolt broke off in that cam I just slapped another cam I had in and put it all back together. It has been maybe 3 years now and my brother is still using that car to put around town in no problem. I had so many people on the FB group tell me that it wouldn't work. I would not worry about those clearances too much. As long as the cam spins free when you tighten them down, run it. IMHO

FYI Volvo had a TSB on this very subject. They also explain how to drill the oil passage larger so the issue is resolved with more oil flow.
 
So I assembled the head without the valves and I got .002" roughly across the board, the 5th cap was at .003". I have no idea if I am within spec.
 
So I assembled the head without the valves and I got .002" roughly across the board, the 5th cap was at .003". I have no idea if I am within spec.

For my own understanding i took the effort to convert your numbers to metric:
0.05mm
5th cap 0.07mm

spec or no spec,that's incredibly tight. It's not like the engine will drop noticeable oil pressure because of that kinda clearance.
I'd slap the cam in and run it.
 
I would run that for sure. I have seen much worse. Like on my car with an aftermarket cam...

I think I have oiling issues to the rear cam journal. It's pretty ugly back there. The cam and the bearing are both looking pretty wiped. I will eventually take care of it. I put it back together and have been running it that way until I can fix it right.
 
So I assembled the head without the valves and I got .002" roughly across the board, the 5th cap was at .003". I have no idea if I am within spec.

That is right in the ball park there they need to be.
You are good to go!
 
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