I bought some 5sfe cams from another member, advertised as 294's, so naturally I assumed they were webcams. (looking back, he never actually said who made them) They look funny. The lobes have been ground down so far they are almost even with the bearing surface (does toyota even make shims thick enough for these?) the bearing surfaces are uneven and worn. One cam was hard-welded, the other was just ground down. The lobe profiles don't even look that different from stock cams, except that they are now much smaller overall. Have a look at the pics and tell me what you guys think.

hard-welded


not hard-welded


worn


compared to stock


Are these things even usable???

they look like early (pre 93) cams that have been ground by a company like coltcams.

webcams are easy to identify, the are stamped on the end with the grind # IIRC.

Thanks, Presure.
I checked for markings, the cam that has clearly been hardwelded was in fact marked "web cam 294", the other was unmarked.
Are there shims thick enough to allow these to be used in a 93+ head?

>
to be honest, im not really sure if they will work in the 93+ head or not. i doubt toyota makes that large a shim.

Yeah, I'll probably try selling them on mr2oc, and cough up the cash to have mine reground.
Thanks again.

WebCams stamps their name, month and year they were made, and (like Manny said) the grind# on the end of one of them, like this
These are my WebCams grind #790 made in Nov 2007

Mine say "web cam 294 4-01" and it was etched, not stamped. I guess I got a very early example.

iv still yet to find any decent cams for our engine expect for one that nopi made awhile back. but is there any else avalible???

you havent looked hard enough

webcams, and coltcams, are 2 companies that are talked about in this very thread that make cams for the 5s.

Webcams stamps every single cam they work on so you might have one worked by them and the other may be OEM. With the wear that is on the journal, they've clearly had some abuse and I wouldn't be surprised if something like sand got into their engine and caused the abrasions. With any amount of wear, you're going to have to polish it down but alternatively, you're going to have a to get a shim to replace what was ground down on the cam. On top of that, if you don't want to go the shim route, you're going to have to pay a couple hundred dollars to get the journals rebuilt and reground to OEM specs. So in all, those cams are garbage and not worth an extra dime.

They look perfectly fine to me. You're going to need to scuff them a little anyway before putting them in with oil or assembly lube.

Well I'll tell you right now that you're not supposed to have cams dropped in an engine with excessive clearance... Those journals should be polished down before using them first.
I had the same exact situation happen to me two years ago and spoke with several machinists here and from Oregon cam grinding and webcams and they'll tell you the same thing as my first reply. Ditch em or be sorry.

This post has been edited by RichieRichJP: Dec 21, 2008 - 1:02 PM