Camshaft whistle issue

Yves

Yves

True Classic
My car develop Camshaft whistle issue.
With the stethoscope I can clearly hear the whistle came out from the camshaft behinded gear side.

It's more obvious when the engine has reached the normal temperature.
With the stethoscope I can confirm it is not the Cam timing belt or belt tension Bearing
The head is a high performance head from MWB, camshaft is 223 degree from MWB, the cam box was milled about .024 to use lowest valve shim thickness

The whistle start this summer season...
It is possible the whistle come from the Camshaft Shaft Silicone Seal ?
The cam seal was replaced two years ago and have be lubricated before installation


What is your opinion?

Video Camshaft whistle issue

Thanks
 
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It certainly sounds like it could be the seal. Is it a new seal? Was the end of the camshaft lubricated before installation?

My wheel bearings are making this kind of whine as well - and it's annoying! (I think it's my V-seals).
 
Hi Myron,
The cam seal was replaced two years ago and have be lubricated before installation.
When the engine is totally cold no whistle

The engine working very well but the whistle is annoying!

​

 
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I'd describe that as more of a "scraping" than "whistling". Possibly a cam bearing issue?

Can you pull off the pulley to inspect the seal surface and the seal itself? You can also remove the cam cover for a closer look at things. Shouldn't be too difficult to do that much.
 
Dr.Jeff said:
I'd describe that as more of a "scraping" than "whistling". Possibly a cam bearing issue?

Can you pull off the pulley to inspect the seal surface and the seal itself? You can also remove the cam cover for a closer look at things. Shouldn't be too difficult to do that much.
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Jeff, when you said "Cam bearing issue" for what I know the Cam box don't have any bearing.
I have pull off the adjustable pulley and put my spare one, also inspect the the surface seal, no leak and no abnormality at first sight.

When you said "Cam bearing issue" it is necessary to replace the Cam Box ?
 
JKIDD said:
Sounds similar to a tensioner bearing starting to go.
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With the stethoscope I cannot hear any special noise from the tensioner bearing.
The noise come from the back of the Cam pulley.

The tensioner bearing and timing belt was replaces last winter.
 
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kmead said:
Phenolic or steel cam wheel?
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Hi Karl,
When I have installed the high performance MWB head and the milled Cam box at the same time I have install the "Miller adjustable Cam wheel", it is in steel. FYI yesterday I have replace the adjustable Cam wheel by a another one. The same noise/whistle still there :-(.

I think next step will be to replace the Cam seal. If the problem persist maybe I have an issue with the cam box or/and the cam shaft.
 
Yves said:
Hi Karl,
When I have installed the high performance MWB head and the milled Cam box at the same time I have install the "Miller adjustable Cam wheel", it is in steel. FYI yesterday I have replace the adjustable Cam wheel by a another one. The same noise/whistle still there :-(.

I think next step will be to replace the Cam seal. If the problem persist maybe I have an issue with the cam box or/and the cam shaft.
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Right I should have remembered that. My apologies.

Any actual leakage of oil?
 
I had a high pitched whine coming from the cambox, on my last motor. Turned out to be a "bent camshaft". MWB sent it out to one of their vendors (some witch doctors on the West Coast). They threw some chicken bones on the floor, did a little dance and straightend it out for me. I'm reusing it in my new motor. I haven't started it yet... but fingers crossed, it's all good.
 
Tom Ginefra said:
I had a high pitched whine coming from the cambox, on my last motor. Turned out to be a "bent camshaft". MWB sent it out to one of their vendors (some witch doctors on the West Coast). They threw some chicken bones on the floor, did a little dance and straightend it out for me. I'm reusing it in my new motor. I haven't started it yet... but fingers crossed, it's all good.
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I would like a pic ot Matt dancing around chicken bones. Even better, if you could make it a sticker. I would gladly display it on my car. :)
 
To me it almost sounds like a belt rubbing on something. Is the cam gear or timing belt rubbing on anything at the top of the engine? Have you tried a different timing belt?
 
Yves said:
My car develop Camshaft whistle issue.
With the stethoscope I can clearly hear the whistle came out from the camshaft behinded gear side.

It's more obvious when the engine has reached the normal temperature.
With the stethoscope I can confirm it is not the Cam timing belt or belt tension Bearing
The head is a high performance head from MWB, camshaft is 223 degree from MWB, the cam box was milled about .024 to use lowest valve shim thickness

The whistle start this summer season...
It is possible the whistle come from the Camshaft Shaft Silicone Seal ?
The cam seal was replaced two years ago and have be lubricated before installation


What is your opinion?

Video Camshaft whistle issue

Thanks
Click to expand...
Can you take another video where you are showing the just the face of the cam gear with the car running? Try not to move the camera when doing so once you get it in place.

The washer is for sure not centered on the gear fastener but it also looks like there is some odd run out of the hex fastener face and it seems like you can see the edge of the gear moving left to right in some of the video. It may be a compression artifact so less movement of the camera would help.
 
kmead said:
Can you take another video where you are showing the just the face of the cam gear with the car running? Try not to move the camera when doing so once you get it in place.

The washer is for sure not centered on the gear fastener but it also looks like there is some odd run out of the hex fastener face and it seems like you can see the edge of the gear moving left to right in some of the video. It may be a compression artifact so less movement of the camera would help.
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Good Morning Karl,
Yes I will do a new video.
 
DanielForest said:
I would like a pic ot Matt dancing around chicken bones. Even better, if you could make it a sticker. I would gladly display it on my car. :)
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I'm joking, of course...but if you heard how they straighten the cam, it might as well be a voodoo ritual. They place the cam on a precision rotary jig and measure, identify and mark exactly where the shaft is bent. Then (with a small air hammer) they apply percussion to the opposite side of the bend. I'm not entirely sure how this works, but apparently the percussion creates a vibration frequency within the molecular structure of the metal that "relaxes" it back into it's normal shape. Needless to say, after Matt described to me how this company does this, I was a little skeptical. But he assured me he tested the camshaft when it came back and it's good to go. It also came with a post repair "Cam Doctor" analysis, showing the actual measured specs of my cam. Verifying that it's in fact a proper Euro Cam. Pretty cool!
 
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