Sure Sounded Like a Cam Failure

new 06/30/2004

Larry,

I have a '96 SHO with about 75k miles that I gave to my daughter & son-in-law a couple years ago. It has been great and has not had a problem until 3 months ago. I have been following the "cam story" on the websites for over a year now so when a problem came up with the car last month, I thought I knew exactly what was happening, or about to happen. The interesting twist to this story is what I wanted to share with you and any others you care to share it with.

One evening my daughter called and said that the engine all of a sudden started to make a "clicking" sound. The more she described the sound and it's location, the more I thought it must be the precursor send warning of impending cam failure. Luckily, she lives only 2 miles away and the next morning I listened to the noise as she fired up the car. I was convinced that the cam sprockets were about to shear off the shafts and that would be it.

I have a good friend that is probably the best welder around and a motor head to boot so I discussed the problem with him and then decided to pull the cam covers myself and have him weld the sprockets. After a couple hours, I had the top end off and looked for any signs of failure, but could see nothing. What I did notice, though, was a fairly high level of sludge and varnish deposited, even though I changed oil at no more than 4k mile intervals.

I had my welder friend, Mike, TIG weld the sprockets and all looked perfect so I reassembled everything. As soon as I started the car, I was surprised to hear the sound was still there. I was now convinced that the oil deposits had probably led to something hanging up and causing the noise so I decided to use an additive to clean out the engine. I drove the car for about an hour with the additive then changed the oil and filter. I then went for a short drive and the oil pressure light came on intermittently. At one time, it stayed on for nearly ten seconds before going off. However, the valve train noise had disappeared. I was lucky enough to be a block from my garage so I coasted on into the driveway. My suspicions now were that the additive loosened enough junk to clog the oil pump pickup screen. I took the car to a shop nearby and after a couple days, the mechanic dropped the pan and found a ton of sludge and saw the oil pickup screen was indeed covered and nearly blocked. The oil pump had to be replaced and the engine flushed, but this fixed the problem.

At least, I now have the confidence that there will not be a cam failure and believe that my daughter will confidently add another 70,000 miles to a great car.

Bob Snow
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Larry,

I neglected one part of my story - why all the sludge and deposits.

I have used Castrol GT in the car since it was new. Also in all my other cars. The mechanic that replaced the oil pump and cleaned the engine out said that he had seen several cases like this, all in cars using Castrol GT. He said that he uses Havoline and/or other oils in his race cars and has never seen this sludge or the brown varnish buildup, in fact when he tears down his engines, they are all bright metal. Does anyone else have any experience like this with Castrol?

Bob Snow

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Don't know Bob, but I'll bet somebody on our mailing list may. I'll forward a link to this article and you may get some responses.

U.L.

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