zerMATT951

I've got a PC'd cam tower I got off eBay, but it's got a few blemishes and the gear cover wasn't cleaned up much.... not sure if I want to install it, especially since I'm not sure how many miles were on the motor it was pulled from.

So, I've already pulled out my lifters to clean the original cam tower and I'm wondering if I should just pull the cam and bring the cam tower to my local PC shop to have it prettied-up.

Pulling the cam seems pretty straight-forward, right? Is there any reason that I wouldn't want to have mine cleaned & dressed? Obviously I'll have them mask off all mating/gasket surfaces and keep the sand blaster away from the lifter surfaces.

87944turbo

It is very straight forward. No reason not to. As you said, obviously best to keep the sand from places it shouldn't be. No reason they should be working on that side of the tower anyway though. Of course you will want to do a very thorough cleaning when it comes back to make sure you're not introducing sand to the inside of your engine.

Great time to replace all your cam tower gaskets of course. All the usual storing lifters in order, in oil (I keep the holes facing up), assembly lube on cam lobes when you put it back together, etc applies. Post some pics when its done!

Willard Bridgham 3

If you powder coat the follower tower, you will reduce the heat transfer.
Looks cool, not very functional.

zerMATT951

Great! I pulled them out yesterday and placed them on a shelf in order. I'll move them into some oil now... will definitely post pics once I start on my re-assembly!

kev951

send it to VAN!!!!!!!!!!

zerMATT951

Who's that?

Edit: I looked him up... Nice looking parts!

Bri Bro

Clean and then clean again after you get it back from coating. Sometime you find burned oil and grit inside of parts.

kev951

This is Van, https://rennlist.com/forums/944-turb...ted-parts.html

He can do almost any color and does machining, the ink I pasted does not show a finished cam box, but you can find pics on other threads.

He just did my cam box, dist mount, cam cap, cam plugs, and my racing intake.

Van is the Man!

Chris White

Do not ever sand blast or glass bead blast a cam tower (or any other engine part with oil passages and internal cavities). You will never get EVERY particle of abrasive out of the part. I have a head that I glass bead blasted years ago (its for mock up purposes only!) and every time it gets dropped on the bench from a couple of inches up it spits out some abrasive. One glass bead can ruin your day if its inside the engine!

I only use a soda blaster for engine parts.

Tedro951

I'm with Chris. I've used soda and walnut shells with good results. Sand is for BBQ grills. If you think getting it out of passages and such, there aren't enough Qtips in Quebec to get the stuff out of all of your ears and any other body crevice it finds its way into.