What could have caused my exhaust side camshaft to bend to the point where you can see it with the naked eye? Never over-reved, mis-shifted, etc. blows my mind.

 

head ever been pulled? camshaft bearing caps ever been removed?

 

Yeah, head was rebuilt by my mechanic (who also owns an s) and was re-installed per honda spec.

 

Mixmatching cams is my first guess...thats a tough one.

 

Yeah...its crazy. My mechanic has never seen a camshaft bend this bad.

 

What led you to take off the valve cover?

 

After the head was rebuilt, the car kept throwing a misfire code for cyl 1&3, random misfire. So we did the usual plug swap, coilpack swap, comp test, leakdown, everything in the book. So last resort we decided to check for mechanical probs, valve clearances etc, sure enough, we placed the cams on the caps outside of the car and turned them by hand and you can visibly see the exhaust cam bowed in the middle.

 

Just wondering when its mounted in the car you can see this as well? (you verified by measuring or something as well?)

Would piston to valve contact cause this?