Rusty cam - lightly pitted lobes ok?

[dub-disaster]

The plastic splash guard that goes inside the rocker cover, what does it stop from getting splashed ?? I assume it's the oil filler cap?? I've stupidly left mine out and sealed therocker cover on, what's likley to happen with out it ?
   Also it turns out my garage makes everythin rust in record time, fitted the came maybe a month or two ago oiled it up every where with with engine oil, had a peak in the rocker cover to be greated by a rusty cam, I assume this means my bores in my block will be rusty aswell by by now. Can I just run the engine like this or will is rip the tappets and bearing faces uprealy quickly ? Or will it just clean itself of rust after a bit of running ? Your opinions please

[Yoof]

Anthony,

I'd take the cam out and just clean it lightly with scotchbrite- refit it with some cam lube, is more like grease than oil, and will last on the lobes rather than trickle down into the sump.

Regarding your bores, if you've got the valves open and have alot of moisture in the air, then yes, there's a possability they've got surface rust on them. I would put a couple of squirts of oil into the bore once a month or so, and keep turning the motor over when you do so.

The splash guard has a couple of purposes, I think it's main purpose was on the n/a engines (3f etc) which had an oil breather there, to stop oil from the cam lobes getting thrown down into it, and to deflect oil down the gallery into the sump when filling up, so you didn't fill the tappet chest with oil.

Cheers

Pete

[dub-disaster]

Right cam out and clean it up, I thought as much just didn't realy wanna have it out again as d have to time it all up again.
wheres best to oil it down the spark plug holes? what would surface rust in the bores do high oil consumption ? Poor sealing and smoke i suppose??
  God damn wet English weather n crappy garage !! Thanks for the advise hope it works out ok not far from starting it up now minus the time to de rust things !!

[dub-disaster]

Took the cam out it was quite heavily rusted cleaned it up with scotchbrite cam I can now see the cams lightly pitted on the lobes is it still ok to fit or will the pitts cause the tappet surfaces to wear out quickly ?? that's the pitting after cleaning it up all rusted