George @ Ecology always has some used parts for everything

 

Which cam do you need, I have a spare intake shaft I'll make you a deal on.

 

Matt, sent you a PM

 

Well, after pulling off the head, it appears that both cams have all their teeth. Could that one tooth that I found have been left over from an earlier job? If so, should I worry about it? Is their anything else it could be? Thanks a lot by the way.

 

This is your Lucky Day!

That tooth has to be from an earlier failure. Be glad you have one tooth that made it to the drain plug. The only way to find more would be to drop the pan and look. That might be the only one or there may be others. Consider the money you just lucked out and did not have to spend and think about dropping the pan and Knowing there aren't any more teeth lurking around down there. You can replace the rod bearings while you are in there and the rod journals will give you an idea on how well your main bearings are doing.

Inspect every nook and cranny you can with the valve cover off. There could be others that didn't fall down the oil return passage. If the cams have been replaced it would be a foolish mechanic who didn't look for missing teeth though.

While you have the valve cover off you must inspect the cam chain tensioner pads. Look at these pictures: Tensioner Failure Click Here Those pictures should motivate a close inspection of the pads! If you look carefully at the spark plug tunnel and the mounting area for the chain tensioner you might see welding that indicates your head had this failure in the past. At least you would know. I also have heard that cams have stripped teeth w/o the tensioner failure.

Cheers

Wait, I just saw that you said you pulled the head, unless you are doing other work you don't need to pull the head. Do you mean the valve cover?