Wrong cam Core!!!!
 

Thanks to some VERY knowledgeable people on this site, I have found a solution to my problem. I recently cammed my truck and kept the AFM and VVT. The company I bought it from still has a chance to redeem themselves so I will not bash their name as of yet.

I took 2 and a half days to tear my engine down to install this cam. After driving it I noticed how jumpy it was when coming to a stop and noticed a flat spot in the acceleration around 1500-2100 rpm range. I also have absolutely no power when taking off. I can't even break the tires loose. I could break the tires loose when it was stock with only an intake put on!!!

I began doing a lot of research on camming these 5.3L with AFM and VVT. Without starting an oil consumption debate I will just say that deleting the AFM/DoD is a must IMO. I found a few others complaining of little to no power after camming their engine and keeping VVT. Well, a person WAY smarter than me found out that for the 2007+ nbbs trucks, there are two possibilities of cam phaser sprockets for the VVT. The core of the cam one would need depends on the part number of phaser one has.

So I got my vin ran at the dealer to receive the part number phaser in my truck. I called the company back. Low and behold, I have the wrong core pertaining to my phaser. I'm not even mad at this point. I feel releived at finding what the problem is.

So we begin talking about sending this cam back and getting a non-AFM cam and also having it a 3 bolt cam in order to eliminate VVT. This truck is my daily driver, so when I tell the company that the wrong cam has been driven on, he proceeds to tell me that he can't take it back!

My blood gets close to boiling at this point. I ask the guy to take a step back with me to assess the situation. They never asked me for the phaser part no. Only the year of the vehicle. THEY sent me the wrong cam. Used or not, I feel they should bite the bullet to send me the correct cam.

The employee tells me that he will refer this to the warranty department. I understand that maybe accepting a used cam in return is out of his paygrade and maybe it does require another department to handle.

BUT.... If they think for one second they are not taking this cam back and sending me the correct one for my truck, they are sadly mistaken. I will fight this as far as I have to take it.

Here's another issue, the valve springs I bought may not be strong enough for the cam I am now able to install due to deleting DoD. My pushrod length will also change due to me going from a 500 lift to a 600.

I'm looking for some compensation here. Definately a proper cam at NO CHARGE, possibly some money back if the replacement cam is cheaper than the one I bought. I want compensated for needing different valve springs, and pushrods. Not to mention the down time and work needing done to my daily driver.

Give me some feedback!

I would say they definitely should help you out on the cam that is the fair and honest thing to do. The other things you are SOL solely because after the fact you decided to take a different route in relation to deciding to delete the DOD. As far as downtime compensation forget it GM wont even do that on a 55K truck that spends weeks in a shop so there's no reason a secondary company should reimburse you.

I'm prepared for that, but still gonna try. As long as I get the right cam after spending 400 bones on it, I'll be somewhat satisfied.

Can anyone tell what damage might have been done with driving on a wrong cam core? I put about 300 miles on it, before figuring this out.

At first I just thought it needed a tune until this site helped me figure more out.

Hopefully they come through. I could understand them not wanting to help if it was a case of the incorrect cam size in relation to lift intake/ exhaust specs and was then installed because the box and cam shoulda been verified before installation. But you got hosed due to gm running design change in cam cores that should have flashing red lights and tons of questions from the people taking the order in order to verify the right parts are sent out in the first place.

Won't damage anything just runs like shit probably because the cam is retarded if I had to guess.

That's good to know. My gas mileage is HORRIBLE too.

You could send them this link, it's to a sticky on this forum, if they want to know the background (TNX to Area47).

"So You Want A VVT Cam Swap?!?!"

I had hell keeping Comp straight on what VVT core I needed. I even sent them my phaser number twice and they still tried to grind the wrong core. Luckily I had read up on what happens when the wrong core/phaser is used so I stayed on their ass and FINALLY got the right cam core

they should replace the cam...forget any kind of compensation. it's part of the game.