Did these cams get too hot?

[bobalattie]

Stumbled across this and was trying to figure out what happened for my own curiosity..

Did they get too hot? Poor heat treating? The journals still look nice.. just curious and trying to learn.

[digger]

What's the background on them? Did you run them and they went like that? Or you found them like that ?

[Roundybout]

Is that the effect of parkerizing possibly? What's the history of these cams? Miles especially and the maintenance history if known? I've pulled cams that look like that and was under the impression that's just carbonized oil residue on the parts the lifter doesn't touch or not under extreme pressure. These weren't race engines but passenger car with high miles and possibly not consistent regular oil changes. I considered it normal as the lobes were still good with no obvious wear. Heat would be blueing and damage felt as grooves or wear with a finger nail.

[pcnsd]

Stumbled across this and was trying to figure out what happened for my own curiosity..

Did they get too hot? Poor heat treating? The journals still look nice.. just curious and trying to learn.

The discoloration pattern to me indicates the second cylinder from the top on the right hand camshaft saw the greatest heat and that heat grew less intense as distance from the heat source increased. The camshaft on the left indicates the same basic pattern but at a lower overall temperature exposure. I believe it most likely occurred in a running engine and that cylinder was the cause. Meltdown?
Still usable? Don't know.

See steel heat color index here:
http://www.smex.net.au/reference/SteelColours02.php

[BigBlockMopar]

Has the steel actually changed colors or is it just the image-lighting, as the photo appears to have a blue-ish tint to it?
I tend to think I'm just seeing oil baked onto the cams, and even more so in the center.
Is that where a PCV is located perhaps?

[jed]

The car fought on fire and cooked the cams.

[JRice]

The car caught on fire and cooked the cams.

What he said
That’s the only way it wouldn’t also hurt the journals too in my opinion....
The aluminum head kept the heat away from the journals.
From the looks of it those are Ford Modular Cams Correct?

[bobalattie]

Yes, they are ford modular cams.. 262ah

They showed up on marketplace, so I don’t know the history.. I was looking for something cheap for our lemons crown vic..

I was considering a car fire because of the coloring and the journals still looked ok, but some of the lobes have the coloring removed from the followers..

I was just looking for some insight as to what you all thought happened..

Thank you.

[Caprimaniac]

Heat from fire cooked the cam/ lobes. Will the cams be useable after, or did the heat take away needed hardening of rhe lobes?

[BigBlockMopar]

I've reworked the image and got rid of the IMO false blueish hue in the photo.

[BILL-C]

We had that happen one time to a pair of cams in 4.6. Aftermarket upper chain tensioners hemorrhaged oil and lost lube to rockers and roasted them. Cams got hot just like those in pic.

[JRice]

We had that happen one time to a pair of cams in 4.6. Aftermarket upper chain tensioners hemorrhaged oil and lost lube to rockers and roasted them. Cams got hot just like those in pic.

If it lost oil pressure to the rockers/lifters it would’ve lost pressure to the journals and hurt them too? Aren’t they fed from the same oil galley from the block to head?

[jed]

Yes

[BILL-C]

There was enough oil to keep cam main journals alive, but a few rockers on each side were toast along with the lobes they were rubbing on. We replaced tensioners, cams, and rockers and back up and running.