resharp001

I'm not proud to say I just went with random Amazon purchase cuz I was focused on delivery time and getting the job done before a big trip. I kinda felt like it was a real crapshoot based on the thought that OEM stuff was all failing to begin with anyhow. I weighed my purchase vs. waiting longer for a set of Melling's off Rock Auto. I probably should have waited for better parts but is what it is.

restoman56

Thanks. I have the same tick in my 2015, and thanks for providing the videos so we don't have to search for them. Since this is so common with this Pentwater, you would think someone like CC, Lunati, etc., would machine top end parts for this engine.

New_world_disorder

How are your rockers holding up? I'm trying to figure out if it's worth it to spend the extra money.

resharp001

If you have the time, i'd get something that you feel good about the quality. I was just super impatient and didn't care to wait for Rock Auto's slow shipping. I do think it's a crap shoot though since it's the factory ones that fail to start with.

resharp001

I have a real love/hate relationship with my jeep, but lately it's been more hate and bitterness than love. On my recent trip to Ouray I was getting a noticeable tick on the driver's side head. Mind you, I just rebuilt my entire timing maybe 5-6k miles ago and I looked a the driver's side valvetrain at that point. It appeared to be ok, wasn't hearing anything, and I was going with the "if it ain't broke don't touch it" idea. Also though, getting in that driver's side is hella easier than the passenger side I did previously, so needless to say I left it. Today I've got nothing but regret. When I got back from Colorado I did an oil change and was SHOCKED at the amount of metal in my filter . So today it got broken into. At first glance everything appeared ok looking down on the valved train, but as soon as I actually had the intake cam out all life sank out of me.




The underside of the rear most lobe is borked! And here is what the rocker looked like before being touched. Look how far down that bearing is sitting in the assembly and the wear on the arm itself.



The ONLY positive thing I can say at the moment is that it explains all that metal in my oil filter. I probably would have been more upset to do new rockers/lifters and NOT find a big issue. I was hoping to find a bad rocker with no damage to my camshaft, so this sucks pretty bad. I'm a glutton for punishment. Should have just done this 5k miles ago. I post this stuff so that all you others can learn from my mistakes, and there are many, many mistakes that I make.

Sv_dude

Thats interesting. Did you inspect all of the rocker bearings before putting the rockers back in? What about the hydraulic lifter, any sign of it being bad? I haven’t gone through the inspection process on my rockers/lifters yet but I’ll definitely be extremely picky when putting everything back together.

Sorry to hear about the troubles. On the flip side, you have a vehicle that you work on and you know what’s been done to it. It’s your project and you’re not inheriting something unknown. Once you get these issues worked out then you’ll have a solid rig and you’ll be proud of it.

Don't give up! Stick with it and just tackle one problem at a time. Enjoy the journey because working on it can be a good thing if you let it be. Take your time.

My rule when I used to work on helicopters is that I wouldn’t touch a helicopter without having a few shop towels and a really good flashlight with me. That allows me to inspect well with a good light and wipe stuff down. Put your hands on everything that you see and wipe everything down that you touch. You’ll love it a bit more that way.

resharp001

I just finished getting both cams out, all rockers and lifters replaced, and cams back in. So that rear-most on the intake side was total crap. To my surprise, The front-most rocker was bad as well, and several of the others were.....less than perfect but not obviously bad yet. Shocking. Exhaust side everything still felt good. I have yet to find a bad lifter, but every time I have replaced rockers (3 times now!!!) I have just replaced everything.

So, the real issue regarding inspection is that when I rebuilt timing and had that driver's side off, I looked at things and they looked good, EXCEPT those driver side cams are under spring tension till you rotate them 30 degrees. The issue there is you are not seeing the important part of some of the cam lobes, and in my case that really bad one was in the rear with the lobe directly down so I didn't see it and didn't think to try and look at the undersides. Live and learn I guess.

Also, I really looked at that camshaft. Based on the videos way above, and The Motor City Mechanic, whom I really like, I decided to resuse that camshaft. The scored lobe was still shiny and did not appear worn, and it measured the same as the others still with a caliper so I put it back in there. It didn't even look as scored as his "good" example in one of the related videos he has out.

It's hot as hell outside. All that is left is to clean some RTV, get the VC back on and reassemble the other bits. There is light at the end of the tunnel.

njp123

hey there. i have a 2012 jku and i had the lifter tick so i decided to go through the process of replacing the lifters and all that jazz with the kit. when i opened up the passenger side the cam was torn up and marred on the cam lobes. i replaced the cam and now the jeep wont start. i have no check engines besides a p0520 which i believe is oil pressure senser. the jeep started up 3 times last night and when i went to put it into gear it stalled immediately and when it was running it was running rough. im assuming the timing somehow got messed up or the replacement cam's cam phaser was messed up in shipping or install. if anyone has any ideas on what to check or where to take my next steps id appreciate any help yall have to offer. im also curious if the cam phaser can have a different coding or someting along those lines... anyways TIA

resharp001

The cam phaser is really a basic thing. it looks big and complex, but all that is doing is allowing oil pressure to move 1 single pin in there which then allows the camshaft to advance or retard slightly based on what the computer is wanting. The oil is diverted or blocked from the phaser via the coil control valve, and the actuator (black thing in front of the valve cover) simply has a button that pushes into the oil control valve to control that......as you saw when you did that job. I guess that is a long way of saying that I don't think the cam phaser would ever prohibit the engine from starting. If anything it would run slightly nonoptimally from where the computer wanted things. My opinion at least. I would think it would throw some code based on what you're seeing.

obviously, oil pressure is a huge thing for these VVT engines. I am not sure if the P0520 code being flagged is preventing then engine in any way as self-preservation. if you clear that code does the vehicle start?

I've had timing out of spec by a few degrees before, believe it amounted to having skipped about 3 links. Even so, you would have not guessed that cuz the engine ran pretty normally, so I don't think that what you're seeing would be related to the timing being out, though I assume the engine was in time before, and when you did this replacement you lined up the timing marks on the cam phasers and got the new cam installed properly.

Did you replace with a factory camshaft or an aftermarket one?