Ok, so i am an idiot! last time i shimmed the valves i over tightened the valve cover and cracked the cam journal!!! Besides buying a new head, does anyone know how to save this? My best thought is to drill out a nut just smaller than the tit that is cracked, heat the nut to expand it and tap it on hot???

I guess you cant see it in the pic but, it has a vertical crack up the cam journal cap(exhaust, on the cam side) The crack is about 1/2 inch long.

Sorry, Can a mod please delete this duplicate!

Weld it. i wouldnt think someone would charge alot. i'm sure if worse comes to worse, i'm sure someone on here can weld aluminum.

you can weld it but i will need to be clamped to the head. also the welder need to be careful not to get the aluminum too hot. any GOOD welder should be able to do this.

it don't necessarily have to be bolted to the head just make sure it is bolted to a flat surface.

You can go about it a couple of ways.

Drill the threads out, JB Weld it, drill and tap it.

Get some aluminum solder, heat the cam journal with the aluminum solder rod poking it the bolt hole.
Heat the cam journal until the aluminum solder melts.
Stick a strong bolt with the same threads in the hole and take the heat away.
The aluminum solder will bite to the cam journal and make threads around the bolt.
Let it cool and take the bolt out.

The danger with the solder method is warping the cam journal. It would pretty much have to be bolted in place while doing the soldering.
Good news is the solder doesn't take a ton of heat to melt into the aluminum journal. Just put the bolt in straight and let it cool all the way before backing the bolt out.

Search for aluminum solder on yahoo and you'll come up with results that have 3 letters in the name. Can't remember it right away. Like HTV or something like that.
There are a few vids you can watch on how the stuff works.

We use that stuff a lot on aluminum. Works good on cracked nerf bars, intake shaping, stripped bolts, etc.



If you don't have a RED BALL supply close to you though, your best bet is prolly JB Weld

I called an aluminum welder and they said that you can only weld cast aluminum if it is a good quality (not to much sand?) im thinking this is not an issue, but ya, i dont want it to warp! The jb weld wouldn't get into the crack verry well and i dont want to put any kind of a patch over it because if it were to break free, It would be bad! Dont get me wrong, these are all ideas i have had also, so im not shooting any of them down, im just looking for the best option! Weld would be great but if it warps it there is no going back! Ill look into the solder, thanks everyone

people have welded them before with good success. you can weld more than cast aluminum. you can weld any kind of aluminum. the key is to bolt it to a flat surface and it WONT warp. i might have a ruined set of cam caps if you want me to send one to you i can so you can let him practice welding

the key to welding aluminum(i think anyways) is the part you are welding needs to be heated before welding on it. i have always had good success doing this. With it bolted down of course.

i have never pre-heated any aluminum when i welded it. i have been welding for years. i have always just used a 4043 welding rod and tig weld it.

Get it tig welded..like said before a good welder should be able to do it..I love tig welding!

The main thing pre-heating would do is get rid of the oil film and other residue on the aluminum it's self.
Although you can give it a good clean up and it won't be an issue.

Ok, thanks for all the info guys! I just got done making a steel collar that should work good, and was $0.89 at lowes! If I have a problem with it again i will bring it to the welder! This seems to be a good fix though! I bought a steel 1/2'' spacer from the hardware bins. cut it to 3/8 long, heated the collar to red hot, and tapped it on to the journal. If anyone try's this you do have to grind lightly inside the collar! next I just grinded the top flush and removed the zinc coating. I think it should last for ever, We'll see! Here is a pic, I hope you can see this one! Thanks again!

If you still haven't had it welded, the just PM reloadz400 - he snapped one, had a local welder fix it, and didn't have anymore problems from it. I know he has pics and descriptions of the process, too... You're not completely screwed until it cracks directly over a cam journal.

There's been talk lately on the board about using other cam journals, or trying to find just the cam journals - not good. They don't lix-and-match, and each set is individually line-bored from the factory. Basically, my set won't really fit your set, and give oil clearance. Just my $0.02 on it...

Fyi..i have three different heads and sets of cam journal caps....i tried mixing them up and when the caps were paired with a different head...the cams would not turn. now i'm not stating its impossible...it jus didnt work for me. as stated by eric and normalz the heads are line bored with the caps on. kinda the same thing as tryin to mix case halves...not a good idea. i'm not goona lie tho...if i was in a pinch and needed to use a cam cap on my head, i'd get a flap wheel that would squeeze into the journal and spray wd40 on it while turning and try my best to get the finish and clearance as close as possible. i'm not sayin this is a good idea to do this...but i'd do it myself in a heartbeat if i had no choice. would it work? i dunno...but someday i may hafta do it cause i have a good head with no caps....jus my .02

Just an update, The steel collar is holding up verry well to this date!

kool deal!

The collar was a pretty clever fix, thats good to hear it is holding up. I guess you didn't have any trouble w/ the threads as well?