Well guys I just got back from FedEx. I shipped mine out for the swap, they will be shipping me back a set of the newer core cams (does that make sense?). Let me stop and say Kelford's customer service is absolutely outstanding! From answering each and every one of my annoying emails to exchanging mine to the new cores and all. Everybody who is doubting them, don't, they WILL take care of you.

 

yea i talked to kelford to and theres exhanging mine to, sending my broken one back tomorrow also. I totally agree with SRT-TO-EVO, im still sticking with my kelford cams....and A+++++ customer service

 

Just emailed them, found out today I have the "EHH8" batch!! Any chance they will send the cam first so we don't have to pay for 2 installs?

 

Contact them directly and explain your issue.

 

step one: present thumb
step two: tell manufacturer to sit and rotate

if this method fails than you shouldnt have listened to me.

 

i hope I dont have that batch and if I do I pray to God that i can last another week till i can figure something out.

 

FYI'izzle not sure if this has been mentioned but it interesting that it broke right at the gear, cams are usually very hard which means they can be brittle, with that said, you didn't happen to install those gears on the cam with a 1/2" Impact gun did you?

Edit: nm, i see this looks like it was a manu defect...

 

Speaking of impacts... I was talking to a friend of mine that has a been an engine builder for 25 years. Everything from pro stock to stock. he said he has seen this over the years in oem stuff. He says the main cause is usually REMOVING the gears with an impact. Obviously this is not the case since these are newly installed cams.

 

Just got back from Buschur Racing; I was able to make the 200+ mile trip last night without any incident and the stock cams were put back in. As I was dreading the "batch number" of the Kelford cam set I had installed is also EHH8, so I think it was a good decision to take the cams out to potentially avoid a catastrophic engine failure. I will be getting in contact with Kelford to send them my cam set so that they can inspect it, test it or do whatever they want with them, hopefully I will be able to get a new set back from them.


On a final note, I want to say that Dan Buschur is a class act as well as the rest of the guys in the shop, the treatment I received was superb.

 

Right now it is looking like it is a defect, but I can assure you that both booster9 and tnt1106 did not have any impact wrenches anywhere near the car and ALL cam related hardware were properly torqued with a torque wrench and also the belt was removed the proper way, no prying or anything of that nature.

Also make sure and check the GSC cam testing thread in the Vendors section, Danny is running the test, and there should be a lot of good information coming out of it.

 

Just wanted to give a quick update!!!

I emailed Kelford last night asking them for the address that I should send my intake cam to so that they can inspect it. In the same email I also asked them if they would be willing to work with me to replace that intake cam (or offer me some kind of discount on one from the new design) given the fact that it is from the EHH8 batch which has produced two or more known failures.

Well the response I got was basically that I can send them the cam and they will x-ray it and if they find no crack then they will just return it to me. To me this is unacceptable given the fact that if it is a material issue, low LCF properties coupled with high Kt's at that oiling groove fillets, then my cam may not have a crack in it yet, but it can certainly develop one which will cause it to fail once it has accumulated enough cycles to grow and propagate the crack. If this happens we all know that the consequences are catastrophic for the engine. We all bought these cams (and pretty much everyone that buys aftermarket cams) at least expects them to have the same reliability that the OEM cams have, which is that they have a failure rate of essentially zero, but maybe we have a new breed of cams in our hands, one that has a cyclic life limit. LLP cams, hahaha, that is just want we all need, cams that need to be inspected every XXXX cycles, hahaha!!!

I just had to vent a little, it is somewhat troubling that the manufacturers are not showing that they appreciate their customer base.

 

well send it out to them to have them check it. if they say its good put it back in just make sure you get a guarantee that if you put the cam back in and it breaks the same way as the others that they will rebuild your motor. if they say no then it means they are confident of the durability of their product.

 

That would be very fair, however I'm 99.9% sure that they will say that I'm on my own if the motor breaks due to a cam failure that shouldn't have happened in the first place. Way to stand behind your product, ain't it???

 

Anyone talk to Cosworth about this issue? It seems like they have been non existent in this thread, or i just missed some input. I am curious if my cams will have the same batch number as the Kelford ones, or will it be different? How can I tell if my cam would happen to be from a bad bunch.

Either which way I think I am going to switch to FP. What is a comparable cam to cosworth M3's?? I want to say the FP4r's but I am not sure

 

I purchased these Kelford Cams from Michael@ETS on February 3rd 2009... They are the Kelford Model #9-177-E, 280 intake cam, and 272 exhaust cam... The casting ID on the end of the camshaft for the intake side is EHHD, as shown in pics... Here are pictures that show the deep oil grooves on these cams... The newer Kelford cams are supposed to have the shallow oil grooves... Hopefully I can have these swapped out for the newer cams... I am running Supertech springs and retainers on my setup... Michael at ETS has contacted Kelford and they have told him that the Supertech springs and retainers are perfectly fine to run with their cams...