Bill Ball

I planned to have a look under the cam covers at 300K miles and replace the rub blocks on the cam chain tensioner, at least. A leaking cam cover gasket dripping on the exhaust moved that up to the current 282K miles. Last time I had been in there was about 200K miles, and I did observe some pitting on the cam lobes at that time. Tell me what you think of the pitting in these photos. I honestly can't say it's worse than at 200K miles, as I'm unable to locate pics from that time, but I believe it is a bit more pronounced. I don't have any spare cams. What do you think from these photos? First is an intake cam lobe. Next is exhaust. The rub blocks, at least on this (left driver) side seem to have remarkably little wear as shown in the last pic. Also, the original cam end oil seals at the rear are intact and in good shape, one seen in pic 2. I do have the pins to replace them.

I've been burned by fixing unbroken parts (perfectly good torque converter seal leaked after I had it replaced leading to a downhill spiral with my trans; a preemptively replaced fuel pump at 200K miles failed after 3 months). My "only fix it if it's broken or will be relatively soon" attitude leads me to want to button this up with a new set of seals. But that's not always wise and I'm not stupidly wedded to that approach. I don't beat the crap out this car as much as I did before (burnouts, twice yearly stress tests doing open road racing in Nevada are history).

Feel free to advise.

GregBBRD

Typical.

Forget about them....check again in another 100,000 miles.

andy-gts

so not to start anything but what oil do you typically use in your well porsche…..just wondering..????

Mongo

Those chain pads barely have any wear on them. Impressive! Mine barely had wear too at 157,000 when we opened it up.

zekgb

Would be interested in seeing a picture of lobes with pitting that requires replacement.

Bill Ball

Greg: Thanks!! I do have remove the stub of one of the cam cover bolts that broke off. First time that's happened. I plan to use some heat there.

Andy: I've never varied from Mobil 1 15W-50. Changed once a year or 12-15K miles.

jcorenman

Start here: https://rennlist.com/forums/928-foru...ml#post9264605

And read down to at least post #94:
Note: those are GT cams with 200K miles, different animal entirely.

Bill Ball

I could have sworn there was MORE wear at 200K miles than now.

Richard S

That's un-possible unless you used Amsoil.

Rich

M. Requin

What a thread title! With permission I think I will add it to my sig line. I held off scrolling down to answers being pretty sure Greg would reply, and said to myself, "run 'em!". Felt good when I continued...

worf928

Me three

Speedtoys

Its not so much the wear, but they become incredibly brittle in their old age.

Thats the danger.

hacker-pschorr

+1,000

My mothers 1.8 turbo Beetle with 80k miles recently needed the pads changed on the cam chain tensioner, it was pitted and showing damage (yes this is normal at this mileage).

Pads are NOT available, you must buy the whole assembly. Remember this the next time anyone complains about the cost of 928 parts:

http://parts.vw.com/p/Volkswagen_200...58109088K.html

GregBBRD

Yes, I agree, completely.

The pads are not worth fooling around with...way too cheap to not replace.

I'd change both pieces on both sides of the engine, along with the oil galley plugs.

Bill Ball

Use however you wish.