Look At This!! Brian Crower (did This Happen To Anyone Else?)

[OBEEWON]

Oh man this is crazy. Some of you may remember the problem I had similar this past summer with blowing my motor.

Well it continues, still can't get right(think im going to re-name my car that).

Recently scrapped my old Deatschwerk 740's for Sard 850's, and I decided to give Brian Crower ANOTHER chance. So I went with 264's in/ex. instead of 272's.

I ran the car on stock cams first to make sure everything was fine, then the 264's were installed as PER FSM, torque specs, lube and all.

Car idles fine. Go one block and back, fine. Idle for another bit then BAM. Car shuts off wont start again.

Here was the problem.

http://i178.photobucket.com/albums/w264/OBEEWON/DSC_0042.jpg

http://i178.photobucket.com/albums/w264/OBEEWON/DSC_0041.jpg

http://i178.photobucket.com/albums/w264/OBEEWON/DSC_0040.jpg

http://i178.photobucket.com/albums/w264/OBEEWON/DSC_0039.jpg

http://i178.photobucket.com/albums/w264/OBEEWON/DSC_0038.jpg


Long and short. Dowel pin on the exhaust cam snapped off. Landed on the edge of the block next to the timing chain(Thank God it didnt fall into the oil pan).

Cam lobes face SAME FLIPPIN DIRECTION at TDC.

Im so sick of getting bum parts. I was supposed to be going in for paint but now I gotta deal with this crap.

Havn't gotten ahold of Brian as its the weekend.

This happen to anyone else?

[DUBCITY]

so the lobes just stayed at tdc the whole time? i find that hard to beleive. you better check your valves. if it was running and then broke i doubt it just landed at tdc. sucks to hear that shit happened.

[OBEEWON]

so the lobes just stayed at tdc the whole time? i find that hard to beleive. you better check your valves. if it was running and then broke i doubt it just landed at tdc. sucks to hear that shit happened.


Come on man...lol...landed at TDC.

I cranked the motor to TDC by hand.

At TDC the lobes should face away from eachother. The intake side is right the exhaust side is wrong, which is the same side missing the large chunk of metal pictured above. Hence me saying the pin broke off and the cam spun out of time causing me to loose compression.


My question is:

SR's have clearance correct? If so how much and could I get away without bending any valves in this instance?

[2fast4y0u]

when i got my first set oh hks 264 i and e there was a dowel pin missing. i had to yank it out of the oem cam and hammer it into the hks one.

never came loose though. granted the motor ran for about 45 seconds wit those cams. do to a ASSHOLE mechanic who doesnt re-check his work, a rocker shim shot out and went down to the oil pan

didnt tap any valves or anything crazy, but it was a bitch tearing it down to find it

good luck with your findings

[OBEEWON]

Has anyone had conflict with Brian Crower, or had to deal with the company with an issue? My first expirience with calling in was less than satisfactory.

[opponheimer]

Ehh it may be possible you bent valves.. You can tell real quick if you do a compression test, but to do that, you have to put the stock cams back on obviously.. Bummer man, I would not be easy on BC, that is fucking gay.

Its good you had the RAS, same thing happend to me and i destroyed my cams and broke all of my RAS in pieces. +1 Rep for you, i feel your pain.

[sac]

dam dude.. i have had nothing but good experiences with them.
I built a motor with their 272 cams, and it held strong for 40k miles that i had it. Granted i had a full motor build on the sr, but still worked fine.
good luck man. HE should take care of you.

[babowc]

How the fuck does a dowel pin just pop off like that.. weird..
I hope my bcv2 doesn't do that...

[OBEEWON]

Talked to the company. Some cat named Dustin there is not a cool dude at all (putting it lightly). BC was very resistant at first but, he agreed to look at the cam. God forbid something be the manufacturer's fault right...?

Of course he is saying its my fault because I didnt torque the sprocket down, which I did TWICE. There is no physical indication on the cam or any component of the head to indicate impropper installation.

But seriously, how hard is it to install cams properly.



Oh yeah I had thier 272's first...lol

[PhopsonNY]

Are you sure you tightened the cam gears down enough?

The pins are just there to locate the cams in the gears, but the bolt tension is what really holds the cams to the gears. The pin is not strong enough to hold the torque generated in the engine.

If you tightened the gears enough, then ignore the above.

Good luck

[DUBCITY]

Come on man...lol...landed at TDC.

I cranked the motor to TDC by hand.

At TDC the lobes should face away from eachother. The intake side is right the exhaust side is wrong, which is the same side missing the large chunk of metal pictured above. Hence me saying the pin broke off and the cam spun out of time causing me to loose compression.


My question is:

SR's have clearance correct? If so how much and could I get away without bending any valves in this instance?

COME ON MAN!

that was my question:duh:

and since this shit happened when the engine was running, its more than likely you bent your valves. SRs are interference, ie dont have clearance for timing errors.

like was said before, more than likely these cams were installed incorrectly. the pin is used ONLY to locate, they dont take any shear tension, if they did the pin would simply shear off. you can (literally, wouldnt do it, but it would work) install cams without a pin, as long as the cam gear was positioned correctly, the bolt is what keeps the gear/cam in sync, the pin is only there for installation.

did you torque the cam gear bolt to 101 ft-lbs like the fsm says? since the gear moved i doubt it

[smelly240]

every other rotation the cams lobes will face each other ;) and then apart and then at each other

so one of your cams didnt turn??? Looks shitty either way

[OBEEWON]

Well I used an impact gun, and rechecked with a torque wrench. Ive done cams on SR's quite a few times and this has never happened to me.

The dowel pin is in ONE PIECE. That is wierd. If the sprocket was loose then the pin should have broke. There should be scratches on the face of the cam. Nothing there... I don't know what the problem was but I really highly doubt I did something incorrectly. Im one of those anal people that check bolts 2-3 times.

[cbcustoms]

+1 posi rep for you. Good luck with everything. I had problem with BC once before. They took care of me though.

[fliprayzin240sx]

I dont see how the fucking cam will cause that pin to just jump off. What spec crower cams are they? Did you check to make sure there were no binding before you started the engine? Sorry i just had to ask cuz i dont see how cams will cause that shit to just fly off. Even if its binding, you'd fuck youre head up first by bending valves before that shit would come off...

[OBEEWON]

No I feel you. Everything was lubed and torqued to spec. I always turn the crank by hand before I close everything up and start. No binding...
What problems did you have with BC?

[2fast4y0u]

my buddy has a s13 sr and he also had a similar problem. not sure if hes a member here or not...
had cams put in with complete motor build. starts it up and BOOM. opens it up and dowel pin is sheared right off.
not the same thing that happend here but i would say his problem was do lack of tightening.

i highly dout your problem is due to lack of tightening. sounds more like manu defect to me.

just my $.02

[madd ocx]

i had a similar problem with the ka cams. i took it to my mechanic to get it installed and when he went to start it up the car shut off.. he checked it out and saw the valves were bent. he called crower and he said that the cams had to be installed the opposite way? what the f**k? the exhaust in the intake and vice versa. he said that it was explained thats way on the instructions, but the guy i brought it from on here never gave em to me and he knew about that s**t. so thats my story with that. the cams are fine they never broke but that whole fiasco was not cool.

[slw240sx]

How many Foot pounds did you tighten the cams to? sounds like they were not torqued correctly.

I have had three customers that have had this problem this year, but it was all end user errors in installation. They did not properly torque their cam gear bolts. one used a impact only, the other used a cheapo torque wrench that was old and beat up. the third just tightened them with a breaker bar. Fortunately non of them actually encountered a problem with bent valves even with the gears backing off while running the engines.

Jon

[fliprayzin240sx]

Eh...could be undertorque like everybody said...is there a different torque spec from BC? Stock iirc is over 100-110 ft lbs isnt it? Close to the same spec as the fly wheel bolts...

[steve shadows]

bc makes really cool retainers

I run HKS hard parts in all my heads.

[Brian W.]

I have literally probably installed more BC stuff in SR motors than anyone and ive never had one problem with the Cams or any of his parts.


Just puttin that out there.

[smelly240]

i never had problems either - sr's, evos, hondas... i recommend BC stuff all the time.