Team SSR

My camshafts are badly pitted, so they would need to be welded before rigrinding. I've been looking for replacement cams for my '87 944S. Are '87 and '88 the only eligible years I should be looking for, or will the later S2 camshafts work?

inactiveuser92616

I still have the camshafts off of my parts car, in good shape. make an offer.

joseph mitro

i don't think the S2 cams will work but you might ask george at 944 ecology.

FWIW i bought mine from george for $700 last year from a 52K mile car.

aribop

S2 cams have different duration specs.

Team SSR

airbop,

Assuming the extra duration will not cause valve to piston problems, will the S2 cams create any other problems? I will be doing some minor port work. No other real mods except for Autothority chip. This is a daily driver, not a track car.

hacker-pschorr

I'm going from memory on research I did 5 years ago when my cams broke. I talked to Kelly-Moss and one other shop (might have been huntley) about running S2 cams in my S. Both shops have done it before and did not recommend it on a street car. I cannot remember the exact details but for my situation the cost difference was not an issue. Had there been an overwhelming advantage to running the S2 cams I would have done so.

Sorry for the vague details.

bader$

The timing or centerline of the s2 cams are different as well. Not sure but I would think it was to take advantage of the displacement for more torque which would tend to rob the 2.5 of top end power. I have played with the cam timing of mine and while you can get a little more low end (read as hardly noticeable) it quickly robs what is sweet about the S motor, Its high rpm hp.

AznDrgn

Team SSR those are my S2 cams on ebay and all I know about them being used in an S is what is posted here. The e-mail I sent you bounced back.

500

It's interesting that this topic came up. When I took the valve cover off on my '87 S to do the tensioner, I noticed some pitting on two cam lobes in particular, the others (what I could see anyway) looked pretty good. What are the ramifications of continuing with these cams (or, are their any guidelines to follow here)?

Team SSR

Eventually the pitted lobes start eating the tappets. While you may not notice a performance issue right away, the bits of cam get a chance to go through your motor for awhile. That's been my experience with other motors, anyway. It may be quite some time before catastrophic failure occurs, but it doesn't get any better once it starts.

500

Yeah, that's sort of what I was fearing. I imagine I will be changing the cams eventually, but I was hoping to live with it for maybe a few more thousand miles. The "bad" lobe has about 3 pits, just off of the peak (on the "down ramp" side - I think). The one pit is about 0.75 to 1 mm in dia. (approx. 0.04") and the others are very small. How does this compare to the pitting on yours, SSR? Any idea on how quickly this develloped on yours? FWIW my car has 147K on it.

Thanks!

hacker-pschorr

My cams looked like new when I replaced them (cam chain ripped off the teeth) that was with a tick over 100k on the cams.

Danno

"What are the ramifications of continuing with these cams (or, are their any guidelines to follow here)?"

The cams will chew up the lifters. The results will be metal bits in your oil, excess friction, reduced valve-lift and power. These are just the symptoms, you gotta find out why your cams got pitted in the 1st place. Perhaps there's a clogged oil-passage? This will result in chewing up your new cams in short order too. So find the cause before you start fixing the effects.

Team SSR

I bought my S with ~194K. When changing belts, seals, tensioners, etc. I pulled off the valve cover to check the chain and tensioner. The pits were already there...pretty much every lobe. I'm hoping to pull the head next month to replace the cams, tune up the head and check the condition of the bores.

Jay W

I found my cams to be pitted almost 2 years ago. The cam followers looked fine at that time. Since then I have put 22,000 miles on the car and it still runs fine. Do this at your own risk though.