This is what an engine head and cam looks like when it has been overheated. This engine came to me like this...it was running poorly...took it apart and this is what the cylinder head looked like.


More pics here:



The exhaust valves & stems are white from excessive heat and the valve guides are probably worn out.






The exhaust valves & stems are white from excessive heat and the valve guides are probably worn out.





The cam lobe is galled either from excessive heat or low or poor oil.


This can all be fixed but it ain't cheap...needs new valve guides, seats, valves, springs, keepers, locks,seals.... resurface the head (it is warped) and a new coat of black paint and it will be ready to go.

This is why you should change your oil and filter regularly! I run synthetic oil because of the superior heat handling qualities...doesn't break down as readily under hot conditions like this.

Really?   You want the experts to speak on the pictures shown?    Heck, that would spoil all the fun you guys are having.

I'll speak to the "cam spauling" shown.   I'll let others speak to the white valves (which are pretty much normal looking for a stock EPA lean engine).



This one is hard to judge from the picture, as you can't tell if it is at the apex of the point of the lobe or the bottom of the opposite side -- the picture angle is sorta tough to interpret.   If it is the peak of the point, then it is typical damage from low ZDDP oil and is unfortunately commonly found in our engines.   If this is lobe peak, then this is ZDDP damage in its infancy, it can get a lot worse than this before the valve train loses any functionality.

If it is the round bottom of the cam form, then it it a different story completely.   Remembering that the cam blank is a case hardened mild soft (tough core) steel investment casting so the original surface is pretty rough all over, as you can note from the undressed portions.   So perhaps what you see (if it is the bottom surface of the cam form) might appear to mebbe be a lack of clean up in the grind job.  

(I'm never that lucky, for me it would have to be the lobe tip for sure)

If it were located up on the tips of the lobes it would be of budding concern, but if it is the bottom then since the cam tappet follower is "up in the air" when it goes past that bottom portion of the cam then the effect of the dimples shown would be pretty much minimal.

A picture of the rocker tappet flat surfaces would be right nice, it would help tie down what is what with the source and extend of potential damage to the engine's total valve train.  If that is a tip shown, it has some rocker tappet damage to match up to it ....

I'd be curious how big the "scrubbed" flat spots in the center of the tappet have grown to be in XXXX miles, as that is of interest when people keep asking why we insist you need 1,200 PPM of ZDDP or more in your engine oil to keep that sort of stuff from happening.

As for the head not being flat, that too is common enough.  They start out flat and the jug and the head warp together due to heat expansion contraction over time.   Our 3 steel plate spring lip rubberized head gaskets are designed to handle some warpage, but I always take a big single sheet of medium course sand paper and reflatten my jug surface and my head surface.  The soft aluminium head surface cleans up very quickly and you actually wind up matching up the jug top surfaces to the steel ring of the barrel, removing any high aluminium spots.  Easy does it on the jug surface, in other words.

I see no pics of the aluminium cam bearing journals in the head and cover, these would allow us to judge the oil volume and pressure delivery in the engine.   Previous owners often set the idle speed too durn low, it should always be 1,000 rpm or higher to provide good oil pressure to those critical soft aluminium bearings.

I'd take the head apart and measure the valve stems and guides and if they were in service spec I'd lap them back in and run them.   Remember, our exhaust valves always run at a dull red heat all the time and white valve stem and tulip deposits from the current unleaded gasolines are VERY common.

"Needs new valve guides, seats, valves, springs, keepers, locks,seals ...." might be service spec unnecessary and kinda spendy as the condition of the head is still pretty much normal looking for an EPA lean stock engine.

Sounds like you are no luckier than I am -- I've already done my original cam that way (yup, car oils)  and am I am sure enough starting to do it on a Webb Cam Stage 2 (why I thought the Webb Cam would be immortal, I dunno -- it has a lot more lift and it turns a lot more RPM than the stock cam ever did).  Yup, and I had like 4x the amount of tip damage on my stock cam than you have gotten so far on your stock cam.

Oil is important, of all the bullet proof synthetic oils that pour straight out of a bottle the Mobil 1 V twin (as currently formulated) would likely be the best of the bunch for protecting a Webb Cam.   Trade-off is viscosity, the 20w50 weight will lose you some horsepower due to viscosity piston drag but it will protect your cam and tappets better due to very high ZDDP levels (1,600 ppm).   Remember, 20w50's were Harley spec'd as dino oils that actually thinned out a good bit when they got hot -- and the new synthetic oils don't thin out very much a all at high temperature, so they create a little extra drag on the engine accordingly.

But they do a really good job of protecting them flat tappets and cam lobes.

The engine damage in question was not from my engine but rather one belonging to an unlucky customer  :'(

gone fishing

Based upon VOA's done on the reformulations of the two Mobil 1 oils we can actually use, both Mobil 1 V-Twin 20w50 and Mobil 1 Motorcycle Racing 10w40 are now currently on the approved list in Tech Section.

http://suzukisavage.com/cgi-bin/YaBB.pl?num=1344471565

As always, since Mobil 1 will reformulate without telling anyone so we will always look at them every time a new oil specification pops up.  

The new specification SO (or SP depending on if they skip the SO as confusing) has already been "preliminary sent" to the oil industry with a proposed implementation date later on this year.  Bob's and other oil boards have already said it is more restrictive than ever before, so we are not looking forward to it at all.

We are down to two $10 a quart motorcycle oils and two $5.00 a quart HDEO oils that will work in our antique valve train bikes as poured from the bottle.

#3  Mobil One   #2 Amsoil     #1 Koltz  You'll never have a problem with these Premium Motorcycle Oils. They cost more and theres a reason.

What were his compression numbers like when you checked it?  

How many miles were on the bike when his "whatever happened" event happened?

And just fer good 'ol brother Routy, and just because he hasn't been paranoid enough lately, is the bike still running the stock vac petcock ???   We think we thinks we knows it lacks the white spacer mod, too.

Arg, matie, me thinks me smells a petcock jest a poopin' inta the bilges again, leaking suck and dribbin' troubles again .....

The customer was complaining of low power, backfiring whenever he rolled off the throttle. poor fuel economy. If you can see the spark plug it is bright white indicating the engine was running very lean...I am surprised it didn't burn a valve or the piston which by the way was covered with a thick layer of carbon. This bike has the stock carb with a cheap aftermarket slip-on Harley Sportster style muffler which sounds like there is no fiberglass packing left in it. The plug is still there blocking access to the carb's  idle mixture screw...haven't checked the carb jetting but I will bet it hasn't been changed from stock. It still shouldn't be running this bad though.