Cam lobe flaking

Your engine will develop a miss from the cam lobe being flat and you'll have metal flakes circulating through your oil, which eventually will wipe out your motor.

 

It will lead to this.
Once mine was found I drove it for about 25k miles before I did this. I may have gone a year but be preparing to have it stop running on you at the worst moment. The engine will probly be destroyed when it goes. That means no core credit $8k on top of the new $20 to $40k motor. Mine was not really flaking but definitely a bad cam and follower

 

How many miles are on it?

 

Also I think it matters if it is an intake or exhaust lobe. Intake lobe is not as critical as the exhaust because if it can't get air in don't worry about getting it out.

If you can get air in but can't get it out it will lead to catastrophic failure.

 

How many miles did it have on it when you took those pictures?

 

807k miles. New engine at 834k. It still ran pretty good whe I pulled it in the shop to replace and 7mpg. It was an exhaust lobe #5. Everything else looked good except a oil leak from the front cover in the cam area.

 

What is the exact cause of this?

 

normally once a cam starts to go they go pretty fast. once the hard facing gets worn and it starts eating up its roller its going to eat itself alive pretty quick.