V6 cams

You mean camshaft, not cam, and at a guess I would say the engine could run with an inlet camshaft in the exhaust position. The valve sequencing would be coorect. Mike.

Yes I mean camshaft but it's a bit difficult to have cams without a shaft to put them on, at least in the Vauxhall v6 as standard :-)

I've asked Vauxhall if they are prepared to swap one of my 3 inlet camshafts for an exhaust camshaft but I'm not holding my breath...

I didn't mean that comment to sound as picky as it probably does Mike. I'm grateful for the comment that the engine should run.

This is a piss take, right? There are two inlet cams and two exhaust cams. One for each head.

Sandy Nuts ( snipped-for-privacy@these.com) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :

Umm, if we're being pedantic there's one cam (usually referred to as the cam lobe) per valve. These cams are mounted on the camshaft.

No it's not a piss take. I've got three camshafts labeled 'F' and one labeled 'E', 'F' are inlet and 'E' is exhaust. If anyone's taking the piss it's someone at Vauxhall who put the engine together!!!

The offside head has one 'E' and one 'F' but the nearside head has two 'F' camshafts. There were three duff lifters (no pressure on the pistons when they were removed) over the nearside exhaust valves at the front.

That's always assuming I'm looking in the right place. Near the center of the cams is the partnumber and on the opposite side some numbers and letters are stamped and the E's and F's are in there.

rp ( snipped-for-privacy@infohitsystems.ltd.uk) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :

Where did you get this "E=Exhaust, F=Inlet" from? A reputable source?

Umm, ITYF the engine (and car) were built by Opel, but that's a small detail...

Having the wrong cam in there isn't going to affect the hydraulic tappets. It'll only affect the valve timing.

Given that there'll be very different requirements for valve timing on inlet and exhaust, I find it difficult to believe that the engine'd run properly with an inlet cam fitted to the exhaust side of one head. Has that head ever been apart since the factory?

If forced to hazard a guess, I'd say that the letter is more likely to be some kind of a tolerance code for the bearing sizes.

Most engines use exactly the same lobe profile on both and in many cases the exact same cam on both sides of a 16v head. Chances are that there's very little if any difference between the inlet and exhaust cams on this engine which is why it's run perfectly happily up til now.

From a post of a page of a Vauxhall training manual. It's supposed to be at the front of the cam but I can't see anything there.

I think the engines were built at Ellesmere Port by Vauxhall at the time of mine and it was later moved to South Africa, but it could have been via Germany.

No it's the first time it's been apart.

For all I know the cams could be identical and the timing adjusted by the slot used in the belt sprocket gear, that's why I'm asking here. A quick look comparing camshafts from inlet and exhaust and they look identical with the lobes in the same place with respect to the sprocket key pin.

Three have GM (N) stamped at the end and one has GM (D) at the end. Actually I don't think it's been stamped, more likely in the mould. These could all just be identifying the mould for all I know.

The sprockets are different for each bank but it doesn't matter which is used for exhaust or inlet (on the correct back) since there are different timing marks. Maybe it's just something scratched on the cam when it's put in so that they can be put into the place they have worn into if it's taken apart and I'm just unlucky to have camshafts from F and E moulds and that's confused me.

Similar parts from different tooling, usually have a casting or forging mark to identify which mould they came from, for trackback purposes. You should be able to check if the inlet and exhaust camshafts are similsr if you have the technical data on the valve timing. The opening duration, and lift would be the same. Mike.