Howdy, this is my first time here, was having trouble with other forums and people being unhelpful given my circumstances
I got an 1996 dr350se with an engine that appears to have been oil starved, got myself a new head for it and am working on saving money for the rest of the parts. Slow process
But this is the cam from the old head. Its an auto decompression cam that was only in the street models of my bike, and is pretty hard to find. My question is that is there anything I can do for this cam to reuse it or no? It appears to have aluminum streaks from the old head, but they arent noticeable when I run my fingernail transverse over the top of them. Could i spin it in a lathe and use a strip of 2000 grit to polish and possibly remove the aluminum streaking?
Any suggestions to fix it are appreciated. I can only afford to get a new one if its around $100 or less. The dirt model cams can be found cheap, about $50, but i dont know if i can use those in my bike with electric start, im afraid it might ruin my starter.
Maybe a potential to remove the aluminum deposits with muriatic acid? Need some others with more experience than me doing this method to chime in.
The cam lobes appear to be in bad shape as well, those aren't embedded with aluminum. That would appear to be steel on steel wear, I would assume the rockers are worn as well. It's hard to tell by pictures if it would clean up.
Thats a good thought, i wouldnt have imagined that. Would love a second opinion on that
Yeah, the rockers were pretty worn. But the new head came with all new-to-me everything besides the cam, so im good there.
Would the lobe wear cause problems? If I cleaned them up good, its not like it needs to fit like the cam in the journals, just be a clean enough surface right?
The Shop
DeCal Works Huge Plastic Inventory of UFO and Polisport kits.
Free shipping: VITALMX
Luxon 4-Post Bar Mounts
$189.95 - $239.95
Is your cam Good ?
To put it simply, judging just by pictures you've provided : No, it's Not.
"Working on saving money", in this case, Will cost you money.
You say it's a hard to get cam - try some of the Cam makers / re-grinders - do Web Cam still exist? They / others may do Exchange Core Cams, though, it's an old model bike.
https://emphu.eu/suzuki-dr-350/3071-suzuki-dr-350-camshaft-and-auto-decompression-12710-14d60-1271014d70-1271014d61-1271014d70.html
I've done similar things in the past with success. Un-blown-up a couple two strokes and 'refurbished' a cam and journals in a Ford triton. Partially because I am (by family) a cheap bastard, but more so for the challenge to see if I could.
I'm doubtful yours is easily salvageable by the looks of it. In your case what will help show you whether it can be saved, is to go ahead and clean the cam up as best you can, then paint the lobe running surfaces with machinist dye or a sharpie marker. Assemble the cam into the head with the rockers. Adjust out the lash and rotate the cam a couple revolutions by hand. The pattern rubbed away should ideally be within the edges of the lobe, somewhat wide with feathers edges. No point/line contact.
Then you have to worry about the lobe 'profile' being screwed up. Lobe profiles are critical to valve and spring forces, stability, and fatigue life. If the profile is screwed up, the engine might not run well at higher rpms, or even self destruct from high impact forces, fatigue, and bad harmonics.
It might get you by for a while, or it could ruin your new head/engine. Proceed with caution.
Ok, sounding like its not worth it to try and salvage it
The person who had this before really did a number on it, im a bit scared to see what the bottom end looks like. I think this is just one of my bikes that i lose on, luck has been too good up until this point so it was inevitable
And im right there with you, was raised to jerry rig and cheap out. Done me good till now, but i think this is where all that kinda fails
The guy I sold my KLR650 to was able to clean up the cam and journals after I oil-starved it when cold on a steep interstate ramp. He used to own a Husky shop in the '70s so he was able to make the call. The shop I took it to before I gave up on it had to put their name and reputation on the fix so they were cautious to do anything but replace everything including the head. I doubt it was as bad as this.
Wild update, just found out that the eiger 400 has a head that is interchangable with the dr350. Much more available on the market and FAR cheaper.
https://samkchou.wordpress.com/2020/05/03/dr350-top-end-rebuild-with-eiger-head/
And then heres a complete head and cam, rockers, cap, valves, everything for $400, this is just one example among a ton of complete heads like this on ebay:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/276963905659?_skw=eiger+400+cylinder+head&itmm…
Can i get yalls opinion on this? Its a really good deal, from a quad with 600hrs on it. Its dirty but the inside looks clean
https://www.ebay.com/itm/267166533743?_skw=king+quad+400+cylinder+head&…
That looks pretty good but you cant tell the condition of the valves. Your stuff is smoked. The first head you showed for sale looks to have journal damage.
Post a reply to: Is my camshaft ok?