Got some cams, they don't look right... Options

[Muggs]

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???

[RichieRichJP]

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.