jjasper

My 10 yo was making a ticking sound. I knew it was going to be an expensive repair. My retired mechanic neighbor thought so sure it sounded like a bad valve lifter. So I wasn't prepared for a broken lobe. "Sorry about that. That's awful.", blah blah.

Has anyone seen anything like this? (Local GM specialist repair shop said it's most likely a manufacturer defect.) Thanks so much for any help!

jjasper

KOZ

Think of it this way - perfect time for a hot cam upgrade!!

Paul 75 L82

Got to make sure you get that metal out of the motor.

Chicago1

no biggie time to upgrade it's pretty easy to do a cam swap lucky that was it.

k24556

it looks fatigue crack and it looks like the origin is an inclusion in the cam. I would doubt you would have a recourse with GM over that. There are always small inclusions in steel, and just your bad luck. It is unusual to see one participate in fatigue, but who knows what the root cause is. The fracture face has what are called "beach marks" which are sometimes attributed to the crack propagating. If you can see them, they seem to get smaller in diameter as they get to that inclusion, so that's a rough guess of the origin. Unusual to see one start in the material, and not at a surface or a notch, but maybe the inclusion served as a notch.

you would have to have a lot of proof that there was a manufacturing "defect".

C5Natie

No biggie? Till you find the all that metal went through all the bearings. Then he'll be wondering why he has 15psi of oil pressure after his "hot cam" upgrade.

OP, thoroughly have your motor checked out and every bit of that metal drained out. Cut your filter open and see how much metal it trapped.

Chicago1

I meant no biggie as far as upgrading or install is what I meant. Not about his issue.

fwiw: 15psi at idle depending on temp is within spec per gm/manual

C5Natie

I get you.
Yeah, i wouldnt go off GM's oil pressure specs. Lol. I lost a motor due to a chewed up cam lobe. The last two days of its life I was seeing 15psi till it went to 7psi. Thats why I said that.

OP, good luck. Hope damage is minimal and its an easy fix.

RonSSNova

Metal has to go through the pump before it gets to the filter.

I would at the least, remove the pan, or the bottom if a 2 piece pan and find the chunk.

What an odd failure.

Good luck