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So I just recently purchased a 03 ap1 with 85k miles on it, silverstone color. Pretty sweet car, I love it. With that being said, I work at a shop, so I immediately wanted to do some preventative maintenance and started to change out the fluids. Well when I got to changing the oil, it came out really black, and I was a bit concerned. When I got to filling up the oil and removed the oil cap, I spotted what seemed to be rust at the end of the camshaft. So I decided to remove the valve cover to inspect. What I found was a bit shocking to me personally and am know concerned about it. I would like some thoughts from you guys to see if anyone has come across this. The car runs fine, I don't hear any odd noises and power seems good. I have driving this car about 1000k miles since purchase and seems pretty solid. So far a friend looked at it and said it should be fine. I did feel the cam lobes while the cover was off and it doesn't feel as bad as it actually looks though. Another note, is that only the intake cam was affected. The exhaust came is pretty clean. I'm planning on dropping the oil pan to have a look this weekend and see if anything else might have build up.
This roller rocker looks the worst. (intake)
This is one of the worst cams with the build up. (intake)
As you can see the Exhaust lobes are mint looking compared to the rest.
Intake side of the chain, the grooves on the block seem better than the exhaust side.
Not sure if this is normal, but on the timing chain side by the exhaust, if you look closely there seems to be chunks missing or damaged. Can't tell if this is normal.
More pictures.
That looks nasty. My thought is engine sat unused for a very, very long time. Oil flowed down from higher points, exposing those to air, and eventually rust. Lower areas still had oil coating, so no rust.
That cam gear photo seems to back this up. Its only got rust on one side. That side must have been facimg up.
The real fear is if this was caused, not by air, but by water. As in car was in a flood. Any othet warning signs of that? Moldy interior smell, or all new interior?
I thought too about this being a possible flood car, Moldy smell, not so much, but, the drivers seat cushion is coming apart and leaving dust everywhere, which i will have the seat upholstered. Part of the interior top has some stain on it, not bad, but it looks like it could have been water. I've looked at the car all over and it looks good from the inside, but still, not 100% sure. I did buy a car fax but that can only tell somewhat of the story.
You have two options, run it as is and take the risk of rust being on a critical surface and causing the engine to fail OR rebuild the engine.
I think I would drop the pan and inspect the bottom end, that will give you a better idea as to if this was a flood car or a car that just sat too long. If the bottom end looks good I would pull the head and have it rebuilt, I would be afraid that something is going to fail in the head and damage the whole engine.
The thing in his the labor involved in dropping the pan and pulling the head is only slightly less than pulling the whole engine. Just my $.02
You could also pull the caps and inspect the cam journals. I think that would be my primary concern. If the journals have rust you run a high risk of melting a cam at 9k rpms.
Removed Valve cover and lots of rust found.
