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Brittle Camshaft

9K views 10 replies 9 participants last post by  ChallyTatum 
#1 ·
I was watching a television show, Fantom Works, last night. They were restoring a 1964 Mercedes. The engine needed a lot of work so they pulled it and sent it out for an overhaul.

In the course of restoring the engine, the camshaft was dropped on the concrete floor and broke in half. I never knew that camshafts were so brittle.

Luckily, Fantom Works was able to obtain a used (and costly) replacement to complete the build.
 
#4 ·
Haven't seen the show, but I can attest to the ease with which your typical camshaft will break apart when dropped on the ground.

In fact, me and buddy once invented a drinking game that involved dropping camshafts on the ground to see who could get the pieces to be weird/strange shapes or guess the numbers of lobes per broken section...I actually can't remember the rules very well anymore...huh, I guess I won most of those games then!

No wait, the winner of drinking games chooses others to drink, right? So that must mean I lost them all if my brain is cloudy from the alcohol damage, right?

You see, that's why I never liked drinking games, they were all so bass-ackwards to me. If I win, I should get to drink more, not volunteer someone else!!
 
#7 ·
I'm thinking even if it didn't break there has to be damage to one of the lobes or bearing journals, and maybe put a stress crack not currently visable; kind of screwed either way. I know that's not really the point of the post, but maybe it's good to stress the point of; It's really bad to drop a camshaft time for a new one either way.. :)
 
#9 ·
I was always under the assumption that the harder the steel is, the more brittle it is. This would be due to how they strengthen metal in general. Granted, I'm no expert and I'm sure there's a lot more to it than that.
 
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