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Camshaft bearing cap damage?

2K views 4 replies 3 participants last post by  clarkmike1 
#1 ·
Hey all. Not sure if I'm posting in the right place, new to the hyundai crowd so please redirect me if that's the case. or if you know of a more technical place to ask this kind of question, I'm all ears...

Backstory: '15 Elantra threw a code about the catalytic converter so I checked the fluids and the coolant was low and the oil was way high (I recently changed the oil and it wasn't overfilled) so I suspected the head gasket went and it was sending stuff into the cat causing the code. Made my way through changing the head gasket and most things looked okay. there was an area on the gasket that looked like it had failed so that's reassuring for the original diagnosis, I guess.

But as I was reassembling, I found this damage on the #1 camshaft bearing cap on the exhaust side. (see image below) I don't know how this can happen, at first I thought it had to have happened during disassembly but I'm struggling to figure out how that happened. It's not like I was prying on it or anything. It came off just fine. The camshaft surface itself has no damage either. I thought I was being very careful with it and I don't think it happened as it was in the parts box. It had lots of space by itself and was sitting on it's back. I've done probably 10 other full engine rebuilds and have never seen something like this. However it happened, I guess that's in the past though.

It's not a replaceable bearing surface so I'm trying to find some way to replace it. The oem parts places don't even list it as a part to order.
It seems like my only option is to replace the head? Can anyone offer advice here?
trying to find an autoyard near by with this engine hasn't really given me much... I found one about 1.5 hours away but their website sucks and I'm not really sure if they have what I need, likewise I'm sure they'll want to sell the head as a whole or let me get just this part from the head.

Questions:
- Does anyone know what kind of tolerance this bearing surface needs? if I replace the bearing cap with a similar one from another head, is that going to work? I assume so since it's not a swappable surface, so using plastigauge would be pointless right? But are the cams and outer bearings matched?

- I found a remanufactured head option from Autozone, NuTech, like around $600 but they're a month out it looks like. maybe the safest route to just replace the whole head? anyone know of other options there?

- Ebay heads? I've had bad luck with parts from ebay but I see a couple for around $200-300... maybe I just take one and get the bearing cap and try to sell the rest of it?

- Repair options? seems like a bad idea, right?... it's the chain side of the exhaust cam, big oil pathways there. if I try to repolish that spot it will increase the clearance and reduce oil pressure on that bearing right? potentially screw over the entire rest of the head right? just polishing that one spot might make the oil seep out the side and the rest of that bearing will fail, right?

any advice or help is really appreciated. I'm kinda at a loss as to what direction to go with this.

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#3 ·
the more I try to figure out how the damage could have happened the more confused I get. I'm starting to wonder, was it actually a manufacturing defect? has it been like this since new? the right bearing surface looks pristine. the left bearing surface does show some very light trouble signs. it seems like the only area that actually protrudes from the cap bearing surface damage is in the areas where there's a gap in the cam bearing surface.

should I pick this from ebay and swap the carrier maybe? 11-16 HYUNDAI KIA 1.8L CYLINDER HEAD (CR6B) | eBay

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#4 ·
update: reassembled, ran for a few minutes, disassembled, bearing surface looked identical. amazing. checked everything out again after a 15 minute drive and it seems totally fine.
the car sounds and feels soo much better than before (new timing chain tensioner, new head gasket, several other gaskets replaced, full fluid flush, everything on the top end cleaned) I'm amazed.
it has 80k on it. hoping things continue well for the next 80k!
 
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