we had the same failure to the original poster this weekend with PIPER CAMS.

 

can you post a picture of the cam? is the cam core the same as the others?

 

i've been thinking a bit more about this issue and the differences between stock and aftermarket cams. and adding to what kevin has already mentioned about stresses a couple more things come to mind.

one thing is just the extra inertia of a solid blank as opposed to a hollow core. shifting at say 7k and having the rpms drop down to about 5k in a few tenths of a second is going to put some extra twisting force into the cam.

another thing to check would be to see if there is any run out on the mivec gear or cam mounting surface or even debris on the surface upon install on any of these failures. this would cause the gear to have a minor wobble on the cam and create vibration/harmonics that could possibly add stress as well.

just some more thoughts i figured i would throw out there...

 

So has anyone that snapped a cam had more than just a few bent valves? Has anyone had really serious damage after? I am trying to weigh the benefit of getting new cams in there. If it snaps and nothing is really that horrible except having to put in new valves and cams maybe I can just live with it. However if there is serious damage possible I'm gonna yank them out.

 

TNT's cam snapped on the track at 8,000rpm. sent the intake cam gear through the cam cover, and into the hood denting it. the cam gear was demolished, as was the cover. we also found out a few months later the crank position sensor wheel was ever so slightly bent and wore apart the crank position sensor. the timing belt obviously was destroyed, and when the cam broke a 20 ft flame came out the exhaust and melted the bumper severly. head was obviously damaged from the cam snapping. pistons had impact marks from the valves.

 

Has anybody had a chance to test the new Kelford cores?

 

i just bought them a few days ago

i should have went with fp4r's

 

I have had them for a while now, but have yet to install them.

They are now the same core.

 

^^ oh really thats good to know lol

i got springs that reuse the stock retainers, is it important to replace the retainers also??

 

I have the same springs from Kelford. Stock retainers are fine, it's the valve spirngs that have to be replaced when running a more aggressive camshaft.

 

I didn't read all the pages...but from what I read so far...cams in Evo 9 are breaking more than the Evo 8? Is that correct? Why?

 

Evo 9 intake cams are breaking because of the Mivec oiling gallery.. Please read next time.

 

That sucks. The same guy lost two motors to broken aftermarket cams? Wow.

 

i have used cosworth M3's in 2 of my setups revving all day to 8000rpms with no failure for the past 2.2 years thank god!!
i have also had GSC S1 and GSC S2 run in my car for a couple of months each with no failure!

i really am scared now!! wow!!

however..in my honest opinion..i suspect its a material failure that came along the batch. track down the cams that failed and i am almost sure they all came from the same material batch

goodluck

 

So if I buy this cam from an online vendor, is there anyway for me to tell whether I have the new or old core??