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I just received some in progress photos of the Red Witch from Eduardo at Auto Assets.
As such, I would like you guys to eyeball the photos of the cam gears. To my untrained eye, they look alright. I don't see any shiny aluminum, and the teeth don't look worn.
From across the shop with a cellphone camera, they look fine. Shiny teeth with sharp edges is what you would like to avoid, and I am not seeing that here.
Semi-retired, as of Feb 1, 2023.
The days of free technical advice are over.
Free consultations will no longer be available.
Will still be in the shop, isolated and exclusively working on project cars, developmental work and products, engines and transmissions.
Have fun with your 928's people!
Hard to see well, but based on the small image of the left, that one might have to go. Plus, the left cam gear takes most of the wear, so it doesn't last as long. Right looks ok.
Damn, I was afraid of that. The photos are not clear enough. Sorry.
I will get some better photos of the right side cam gear this weekend when I check belt tension. Not sure about the others. I will have to research how much effort is required to get the left side covers off.
jcorenman: Thanks for the heads-up. From what I have read, you are looking for the coating to have been worn through and subsequent erosion of the aluminum teeth.
GregBBRD: I will see about getting the rest of the covers off to get to the oil pump gear. The oil pump was replaced, but the gear is original.
docmirror: left meaning driver's side? I will see about pulling the left side covers to get a better photo of that gear.
Ducman82: Sorry about that, will try to get closer photos this weekend.
Left side cover comes off easily if you have the later style center cover. If you have the early center cover you can either remove the three 13mm bolts that retain the PS Pump to the accessory cassette and carefully hang it to the side or you can move the entire cassette forward by removing the PS and Alternator belts, the two 13mm bolts that hold the PS/Alternator cassette to the block and loosen the long 17mm cassette bolt (but don't remove it completely.) You can then slide the cassette forward far enough to get the cover clear for removal.
Pictured here is the early style cover that requires all of that extra work, the later center cover extends further at the spot where the early left side cover hangs up against the PS pump cassette.
I am kicking around this idea: Drive the Red Witch for a few months and pay down my credit card some. Order the Porkentensioner with air pump delete. Take the front of the engine apart, send all the gears out for recoating. Reassemble.
zekgb: Thanks for the heads-up! I will get a look and see which style cover I have. Thanks very much for the detailed photo.
GregBBRD: Here is a just as lousy photo of the oil pump gear. I will try to get better photos this weekend:
Thanks!
Seth K. Pyle
Looks ok to me.
You need to remember some things about cam gears and the fact the coating wears off, followed by wear on the gear.
It's inevitable. All we can do is manage it.
The gears will have no problems through the first belt and sometimes through the second belt, depending on several factors.
Once the coating starts to show shiny spots through it, you are near the end.
That, however, does not mean that the gears need to be replaced, at that point.....they might go another 20,000 miles (or more) before the gear wear becomes critical.
I frequently run gears on vehicles where I know they are not going to make it another 40,000 miles....trying to stretch their life as far as possilbe.
Keep in mind that once the timing gears are worn out, the oil pump gear and the crankshaft drive gear are also worn out....so there is no harm in running gears until they are really bad....the same parts will need to be replaced.
Yes, you might end up needing to replace the belt and gears at 30,000 miles, if you leave them in with aluminum slightly showing through the coating...however, who knows how many years and what is going to happen in that period of time....Godzilla might step on it....
Correct, drive it for several months.... look at the wear then. And your current tensioner design works just fine and the warning light is a nice feature to have... You are going to need to fix the A/C so it is not like you need to find things to spend money on
So....what is too much? Now I'm paranoid. I guess my concern is that I see the gears getting harder to find and replace even if I wanted to buy, right?
05-17-2016, 10:44 PM
Today's Edition of 'Rate My Cam Gears'...
