Cam Failure Test - Video

New 01/29/2005

I'm sure that all of the folk on the Folks Who Will Weld Your Cams have a method of checking the cams for potential failure before welding them.
This would be important, as it would determine which type of weld they will use.
This is the method used by Eric Lehmann, and this is the car I spoke of last night.(01/27/2005)
For the most basic of laymen out there, you can clearly see that a cam tube that is supposed to be one with it's sprocket - is not.
It can be argued that it's not a failure until such time as it inflicts catastrophic damage. From where I sit, if the tube is moving and sprocket ain't - It's a failure.
Unfortunately, I don't have this file squeezed yet to accommodate our dial up users. It's about 17.5 MEG in Quick Time Format.
If you be on dial up, don't click the link. You could give birth before it's completed downloading.

For everyone else, about a minute or so. Also, the white mark didn't work out as was hoped. However, when I pan over to Eric moving the Vise Grip, pay close attention to the tube's movement. As soon as Scott, the guy who let's us borrow his server, shrinks it down to a more compatible format for dial ups I will send an email to the list. Here you have it.
http://www.venom.org/SHOWHAT9/CAM%20FAILURE%20TEST.MOV

And for our dial up patrons

http://www.venom.org/showhat9/CAMFAILUREvideo-dialup.wmv

For those that can view in the QuickTime format, enlarge to 200% and watch the part where I pan to the cam tube carefully.

And yes, I intentionally shot a picture of the license plate. That would be for future reference, should it be needed.

U.L.
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01/30/2005

Why would you not just weld the whole circumference always? Seems like
since you are in there, a full weld would be the strongest and best
balanced. Trying to keep the rotating mass down? Trying to keep heat
down?

Jim
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The point is to give the sprocket an extra mechanical lock to the cam tube so it never moves. If it doesn't move the first time, it's fine. In the case where it does move, the welds have to be strong enough and have enough penetration to hold the lateral and torsional stresses exerted on the sprockets. That's why we came up with the procedure to put three really good, really deep welds on each cam.
Doug Lewis
Ford Performance Specialists Inc.

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