I'm in the process of installing a fresh Inline Pro block so I have the cylinder head and all accessories removed from my original block. Well, as I removed the valve cover, I noticed a bunch of black, rust, crud, stuff on the camshafts. Researching on here resulted with a couple of other cases where this happened one a couple other S2000's. It sounded like this happens from the car sitting for the winter. Mine sits in my shop, but gets started and pulled outside, and back in at the end of the day, so it never has a chance to get really good and hot.

My questions is how I should attempt to clean this stuff off the cams before I put the head back on and reassemble everything. Can I use a chemical on the cams to clean them up? Or should I get after them with some really fine sand paper, maybe like 1500 or 2000 grit? I'd really hate to have this excess crud running through the motor while it is freshly built.

I will be changing oil and filter after the initial warm up and coolant bleed per Inline Pro's recommendation, then I plan on changing it again at maybe 100 miles, then again at 500. Hopefully the oil filter will catch any crap that comes off, especially when changing oil and filter a few times right away.

 

You probably want to clean those up. Maybe a rag soaked in fresh oil?

Its likely from starting the car and shutting it off so often...and also the temp swings. All that stuff causes condensation.

Definitely change the oil and filter too.

 

There is no way frequent starts caused that.

That is years of sitting dormant, exposed to moisture. Those cams are garbage, and using them will release tons of abrasive powder, destroying the entire engine.

 

Incorrect. This car is driven regularly during the summer months. Then from about last November until now, the car sat inside my shop, but got started most mornings and ran for 10-15 min, parked outside while I'm working and then started again for 10-15 min before parking it back inside over night. When the weather is really bad, lots of snow and sub zero temps, I leave the car parked inside, so sometimes it sits for a couple weeks at a time.

I found this thread: https://www.s2ki.com/forums/s2000-un...found-1182443/ where this guy had a lot of rust on his cams and it sounds like just running it and changing oil got rid of most of the crud. I'd really like to figure out a way to clean this all up before reassembly.

 

I will try that. Do you think that the lack of a PCV valve could cause moisture to go back into the valve cover from the catch can? I have both ports on my valve cover vented to a catch can, so there is no PCV valve in the one port.

 

Yeah, a vented can can cause moisture problems, especially with an open PCV port.

Catch cans are massive moisture traps...which is why OEM's don't use them.

Proper catch cans are warmed by coolant to burn off moisture, are mounted higher than the oil pan so that they can be equipped with drainage back to the block, and are closed loop.

The closer you can stay to the factory setup, the better.

There's a lot of misinformation stating that "any car can benefit from a catch can". If that were true....it would have been on the car from the factory.

Just like 99.999999% of aftermarket stuff, if you don't absolutely need it for some special purpose; don't use it.

So...if you don't absolutely need the catch can, get rid of it.

 

get another set of cams..

 

Yeah, not sure how well the cams will clean up. I would remove them to clean them.

If they don't look completely clean...best thing may be to just replace them with good ones.

Removing cams is easy on this engine.

 

The cams are out and the head is off. Just waiting on gaskets to put all this stuff on the new block. So let's say I get another set of cams, what's saying this won't happen again next winter?

 

Has to be from the catch can if this car has not been sitting forever. Mine sits in my garage all winter and maybe gets started and moved 2-3 times (I do let it run about 20 - 30 minutes if I do this vs just starting cold and shutting down in a couple of minutes). Have never seen anything like that. Honestly have never seen it period on any car that has not sit for very long periods (years) ... so still seems odd to me.

I have other cars that have sat for a year between uses with nothing like this. Again, the only thing I can think of is it being due to moisture coming in through the open PCV port. Note as well if you use a ventless heater in your garage they create a LOT of moisture. I have one in mine and see this via other metal objects in the garage. So open PCV port/catch can with something like that maybe I guess. Still odd to me though. Good oil does leave at least a thin film for a good while and should prevent this for a long while.