Hi all,

I have a 1987 300e with somewhere around 150,000 miles. True mileage unknown due to notoriously bad odometer broken when I got car.

3 years ago I had a severe oil consumption problem and this forum led me to replace the valve stem seals. When I removed the rockers to replace the seals I discovered that some cam lobes and their corresponding rocker arms were worn to nubs. I replaced the seals (which solved my oil consumption problem - now 1 qt per 1000 miles) and the cam/rockers at the same time. The cam that came out of the car was stamped with number 22. I replaced the cam with a 22 from a used car that showed NO signs of wear. I even mic'd the journals and they were all within a thousandth of each other.

Now 21,000 miles later I heard a ticking from under the valve cover and I have at least 1 lobe/rocker almost gone. I use Mobil 1 10W-40, the oil tree is providing LOTS of oil, my oil pressue is 3 bar at anything over 1000 rpm and perhaps .9 to 1.0 bar at idle.

I'm looking for a cam right now and trying to find a 49 cam (assuming that will fit). But I'd really like to know why I'm eating cam's.

I rebuilt front and rear suspensions, the A/C system, and a multitude of other things. We really love this car, but if I'm going to be replacing cam's every 20 thousand miles I'm selling!

Any ideas?

Thanks,

__________________
Bob Kopicki
Massillon OH
'97 VW Cabrio (POS)
'93 Miata
'87 300e
'76 GMC C-15
'67 TR-4a