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Steel Ball In Cam Slot Fouling Oil Pump?

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#1 nikollou

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Posted 24 June 2020 - 10:03 AM

Hello,

 

I was wrapping up my short block assembly over the weekend and all was going well until I tried to fit the oil pump and noticed that it would not locate correctly all the way in and would thus not make proper flush contact with the block face.

After trial and error I found that the offending item is a steel ball about 5mm in diameter that sits inside the cam slot (let's call this the femaie side) and when the oil pump slot (let's call this male) is inserted it does not allow it to go all the way in.

 

Here is a photo of the slot in the cam where you can see the ball:

Attached File  Camera 2020-06-21 at 16.20.19.jpeg   111.5K   4 downloads

 

 

I checked the old cam that I removed from the engine when I started the build (two years ago!!) and there is no such ball in the slot. 

Attached File  Camera 2020-06-21 at 16.20.40.jpeg   34.97K   2 downloads

 

 

Anyone know what is going on here? Am I doing something wrong or maybe there is a parts mismatch?

 

Obviously one option is to somehow remove the ball but tried to pry it out a bit with no luck.

Another solution I have thought would be to remove just enough material from the oil pump slot (male side) so that when it sits in the cam slot it does not foul on the steel ball. I am confident that this would not have any impact on reliability since there will still be ample area in the slot mating surfaces (male on female contact). 

 

Thx for any help,
Nik

 

 

 



#2 whistler

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Posted 24 June 2020 - 10:24 AM

It is a Swiftune SW5 cam. Suggest you contact them here in the UK for advice.



#3 imack

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Posted 24 June 2020 - 10:43 AM

As above, contact Swiftune, there's been a few issues reported on here and maybe mk1 forum. The ball is plugging the oil gallery for the oil feed to the cam lobe, don't remove it. Make sure you set cam endfloat with the pump fitted.

#4 nikollou

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Posted 24 June 2020 - 04:45 PM

Thank you both, I have reached out to Swiftune and am waiting to hear back from them!

#5 johnR

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Posted 24 June 2020 - 09:21 PM

I had this with a Swiftune cam - 'their supplier machined the oilway too far down the cam' When did you buy this cam? - mine was over a year ago and I spoke to Swiftune about it so they are aware. Disappointing if they're still selling them like this.I notched the tang in my oil pump to clear as you can see in my blog - but as my new engine now has problems this is one of the areas I'll be investigating as a possible cause when I strip it down again. I would recommend rejecting the cam.



#6 nikollou

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Posted 25 June 2020 - 10:12 AM

Ok I heard back from Swiftune, indeed this is an old cam (from 2018) and they confirmed there was an issue with a specific batch as johnR mentioned.
They were very responsive to my problem and will replace the cam with a fault-free batch so I'm glad that I was able to deal with the issue in the end!







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