broken camshaft, boohoohoo....

[gerronnimmo]

Thanks again cdru, after removing the A/C compressor I was able to remove the engine mount strut and valve cover shortly after. I'm sure I could of wiggled the cover off without removing the strut, but the reason I gave myself all this work is that the engine was SO DIRTY, including being full of "sludge" on the valve covers and I thought that, maybe, just maybe, I didn't have a major engine problem and having all that dirt falling in the head could cause more problems. But turns out, I could of used a sledge hammer and not cause more troubles. The broken camshaft is confirmed. While cranking the engine, only the intake and exhaust valves of Cylinder 2 moved, no valve movement on cylinder 4 and 6 confirms the camshfat.

So how can a camshaft break?
Does GM make'em out of glass or what? The last time I saw one, looked like a pretty solid piece of iron to me , man!!! Oh ya, when I removed the valve cover, I was suprised to see that there was just as much, if not more, sludge on the inside of the head! The texture of this sludge is somewhat like "grindings" mixed with oil...

Does anyone know the path of oil to the camshaft?
I think the oil passage ways, to the camshaft, might have been blocked by this sludge. Rotating large pieces of steel on other large pieces of steel without any oil is bad news, my mother always told me.

What is this sludge anyway?
I suspect that if I go take a look at the intake gasket, I'll find it's all deteriorated... and in my oil... can anyone confirm this?

Can my camshaft be broken today, because someone used dex-cool in the past?
hummmmmm... but that's another thread