So the bearing on the lifter roller seized up and chewed up my cam lobe. My mechanic says the motor is junk. I thought the "modular" was supposed to make this easier. Can't you just swap the cam or would you have to do the entire head. He said it would be cheaper or in line with the cost to just put a new motor in.

Thoughts gear heads?

 

What engine? how Many miles are on it? With all the shavings moving throught the oil system that's what would concern me. You could spring for all the stuff to fix it and then find out for real the engine is junk because metal got places it shouldn't. This is rare for a Mod motor to have a failure like that.. If the engines old and tired I would agree with the "mechanic"..

 

All good questions jethat. A roller finger follower on a modular can fail from several different reasons. A single bearing that was omitted during the follower assembly (rare)will allow the follower to lose control and oscelate on the cam lobe and eventually the follower will wear the lobe. A collapsed lash adjuster allows the same thing to happen. A bent valve stem the same thing, poor lubrication or poor cam lobe finish or heat treat.The metal in the oil jethat refers to is a concern but the oil from the cyl head drops straight down into the oil pan via the cyl head drainbacks. The oil then gets pulled into the oil pan pickup tube, though the oil pump, through the oil filter then back through the engine. So the only real potental for engine damage from debris is the oil pump itself unless of course so much debris was generated that the oil filter plugged and went on bypass. If your oil pressure is good then that probably didn't happen. These oil pumps themselves can take a lot and keep working as long as the oil pressure regulator piston/valve is not contaminated. Depending on the mileage etc. as jethat asked then I would think replacing the follower, lash adjuster,and cam is not that difficult and would be way less than changing out the engine. Now if the valve stem is bent then all bets are off because the cyl head will have to come off and that starts getting exspensive. Just a few things to consider but jethats questions are valid and worth considering. Take care