split

I'm considering buying a set of used cams, according to the seller there is 6-7K miles on them...unless he can provide paperwork of some sort to verify this, there really is no way of knowing. They are being sold for about half the price of new, and there are a mild cam(stage 1) not requiring springs or retainer.

I was planning on looking into having them magnafluxed if there is not a lot of excessive wear on the lobes. If there is, then I wont bother. Any other suggestions?

I have read that if I put them in an engine different than the one they were broken in with that my rockers could create a different wear pattern and then create a flat spot.

I'm fully expecting Fabrik8 to respond, but any one else who can contribute something worthwhile would be appreciated.

TransAmWS6

honestly id be kind of scared but that just seems like something i would want to buy new. this is just based off opinion, not experience

patrickr86

what motor are they for? i have reused cams on dif builds and bought used cams before. obviously if there is significant wear its a no go. just inspect them well before you purchase.

split

4g63T

~Josh

My first rule to buying cams: If you walk in and the cams are laying on their side (not in the box, or installed in the head)... walk back out.

Like the other guys said, just make sure you take a Good look at them beofre you decide to buy.

Esco99

The amount your saving isnt worth the risk your taking on buying used.

patrickr86

this is a fraudulent statement.

Fabrik8

Unless you have some way to identify exactly what they are, and they are in like-new or almost-new condition, I wouldn't bother.

About the breakin: Decent quality cams with low mileage shouldn't wear to the point where different rockers should be a problem, as long as the rockers are new or low mileage. It's like anything else, if one part is worn and the other isn't, they aren't going to work well together. One hardened part that wears very little mated to another hardened part that wears very little usually work ok together because the wear during breakin is very low for both parts. Obviously if one part has much higher mileage than the other, it's a lot more likely that there will be differences in surface wear and surface shape, which is why it's somewhat important that the rockers aren't too worn.
That being said, a lot of people swap new cams into high mileage stock valvetrains.

Really the biggest problem is that it's usually really hard to verify what you're actually buying in terms of brand, specs, etc... It's also hard to verify how the cam was treated during install and removal, and any hidden damage is pretty difficult to spot. Soooo it's always a gamble when you're buying used cams unless you know the skill/reputation/honesty of the previous owner. Cams are hard to identify and somewhat fragile so make sure you trust the person selling.


I dunno, I always have this mental picture of some eBay seller dropping one of the cams while boxing them up, and saying "oh well, they'll never know" and then shipping them out.

~Josh

^ This lol.

And not to pick on the Honda crowd specifically (that's just who I've dealt with the most), but most of the people I've ran across are ignorant as to how you're supposed to store cams after you've removed them; or even how to properly remove them for that matter. I'm sure you won't be Mic'ing the cams in some random dudes garage.

White Devil

Wow. A lot of what I was going to say about this has already been answered. I was going to say that it really depends on the risk youre willing to take with your own engine, as there are so many ways cams can be damaged and not be seen/known until they fail, sometimes catastrophically. The money you save usually winds up destroying your engine in the long run unless you get lucky and get a set of cams that the previous owner didnt know they were in such good condition. If it were me, I wouldnt trust ANY internals I put into an engine that I didnt buy new, if only to lengthen the life of the engine itself.

You can always sell your engine with the newer parts if the need for more power/speed itches you, then at least you know that it was reliable enough to run as long as you had them. Just a thought.