96 SHO CAMS: to weld or not to weld

[lepsyc]

I'm hearing online that they should be welded.. makes me nervous, since now I think I may have made a mistake in purchasing this. Should the cams be welded? Can I tell if it has been done by a previous owner. I have 110K miles, and motor sound nice & quiet. Thoughts?

[LarryKL]

Good site regrding cam welding - http://v8sho.com

[xekrubx]

i have a 96 and as soon as i got it i got those cam gears welded by a guy named kirk in massachusetts
average cost is about 500 - 600 depending on the person and it takes an average of 5 - 6 hours also depending on the person
mine was about 800 because i got a coil pack(#6 cyl was misfiring causing the check engine light to come on ..kirk said it still worked but was weak and worth replacing), center console cover (the other one was cracked to hell) and new cup holders (the springs gave out on the other one)
after he did them he told me my engine is out of a 97 so that tells me the cam gears already slipped and blew the 96 motor
(who would just randomly replace a good engine)
the clock said 102k when i bought it and i would imagine the 97 motor has way less miles
MAKE SURE THE PERSON OR SHOP KNOWS WHAT THEYRE DOING
ive read about people bringing their sho's to random shops and they ended up messing the cams and damaging the engine up by not welding them right
as larrykl says www.v8sho.com is the best place to get info

id would say get them welded because a new engine is a kick in the wallet compared to welding
after going to v8sho.com and reading all the stories of cam failures and seeing the lists of failures per month it really scared me

so get those puppies welded and take care of that beautiful machine