Well, this is gonna be a long one, so grab a coor's light, go pee before you start reading, and get ready to read for a little while.
As a lot of you guys know, after I blew a headgasket back in november, I sent my car off to a friend to get fixed, and decided to do some upgrades while the motor was apart. I didn't spare any expenses and replaced all of the gaskets, etc, with stock pieces from ford. We also replaced the springs with Livernois Motorsports Hi- Lift Springs that didn't require an aftermarket retainer.
The only piece that I "cheaped" out on, was a used set of Crower Stage II Cams from a member here. The member assured me that the cams were in good working order, and that he was selling them for a friend. They were removed from an '03 Cobra because the person wanted to go back to stock.
I recieved the cams, and everything appeared to be in order. The cams looked fine, shiny and clean, and to the naked eye, they appeared to be a pristine set of cams just as they were described. The cams also came with aftermarket cam gears, which upon inspection, were cracked. We just got some new cam bolts and went on with the build.
Just to save time, fast forward to dyno day. The car runs fine, idles fine, with a nice lope to it, and everything seems to be going flawlessly. Until we get to about 4800 RPMS. The car just takes a dive in power and never recovers. So KenB at Mod Depot points something out to Rich, who put my engine together. An article on Mod Fords where a member had found problems with a set of Crower Stage 2 Cams, and the manufacturer was giving him the runaround. (Source: [ame=http://www.modularfords.com/forums/showthread.php?t=45339]ModularFords.com[/ame]) Upon further inspection, Rich discovered that my camshafts were definitely my problem. A Dial put on the lobe of the cams indicated asymmetrical grinds, and a compression test read 130 on all 8 cylinders. My car, with a BAP, Steg Stage 5+ Snakebite, MAC O/R H Pipe, and Borla Catback, was making 450WHP on 21* Timing and 18~psi.
I call crower about the issue and they tell me that it's everything BUT the cams... bad timing, bad springs, bad retainers, bad bottom end, bad tune, anything but the product that they made.
So, Rich put the stock cams back in, and Voila. Torque is back, Power is back, the car is back. It was the cams without a doubt, and I have the dyno sheet to prove it. Please don't flame me, or Rich, for " not checking parts before they were installed", because that's not what this thread is about. It's about an inferior product from a big company. CROWER should have checked the cams before they left their shop, and whoever the seller's "friend" was, who sold me these cams should have never tried to doop me over by selling me a bunch of crap and then getting out of town. This thread is simply here to warn others of what I went through, and to be careful when you buy a used part, or even a high dollar new part, because it could cost you way more than you ever wanted it to, I'm just lucky enough to have some good friends along the way who knew how to help me out. Here's the Dyno sheet. I'm sure you can tell which run is the crowers, and which run is after I put the STOCK cams back.
As a lot of you guys know, after I blew a headgasket back in november, I sent my car off to a friend to get fixed, and decided to do some upgrades while the motor was apart. I didn't spare any expenses and replaced all of the gaskets, etc, with stock pieces from ford. We also replaced the springs with Livernois Motorsports Hi- Lift Springs that didn't require an aftermarket retainer.
The only piece that I "cheaped" out on, was a used set of Crower Stage II Cams from a member here. The member assured me that the cams were in good working order, and that he was selling them for a friend. They were removed from an '03 Cobra because the person wanted to go back to stock.
I recieved the cams, and everything appeared to be in order. The cams looked fine, shiny and clean, and to the naked eye, they appeared to be a pristine set of cams just as they were described. The cams also came with aftermarket cam gears, which upon inspection, were cracked. We just got some new cam bolts and went on with the build.
Just to save time, fast forward to dyno day. The car runs fine, idles fine, with a nice lope to it, and everything seems to be going flawlessly. Until we get to about 4800 RPMS. The car just takes a dive in power and never recovers. So KenB at Mod Depot points something out to Rich, who put my engine together. An article on Mod Fords where a member had found problems with a set of Crower Stage 2 Cams, and the manufacturer was giving him the runaround. (Source: [ame=http://www.modularfords.com/forums/showthread.php?t=45339]ModularFords.com[/ame]) Upon further inspection, Rich discovered that my camshafts were definitely my problem. A Dial put on the lobe of the cams indicated asymmetrical grinds, and a compression test read 130 on all 8 cylinders. My car, with a BAP, Steg Stage 5+ Snakebite, MAC O/R H Pipe, and Borla Catback, was making 450WHP on 21* Timing and 18~psi.
I call crower about the issue and they tell me that it's everything BUT the cams... bad timing, bad springs, bad retainers, bad bottom end, bad tune, anything but the product that they made.
So, Rich put the stock cams back in, and Voila. Torque is back, Power is back, the car is back. It was the cams without a doubt, and I have the dyno sheet to prove it. Please don't flame me, or Rich, for " not checking parts before they were installed", because that's not what this thread is about. It's about an inferior product from a big company. CROWER should have checked the cams before they left their shop, and whoever the seller's "friend" was, who sold me these cams should have never tried to doop me over by selling me a bunch of crap and then getting out of town. This thread is simply here to warn others of what I went through, and to be careful when you buy a used part, or even a high dollar new part, because it could cost you way more than you ever wanted it to, I'm just lucky enough to have some good friends along the way who knew how to help me out. Here's the Dyno sheet. I'm sure you can tell which run is the crowers, and which run is after I put the STOCK cams back.
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