Well....at a stopping point now...currently waiting on a flywheel puller so I can continue disassembly.  More to follow.

This engine was built by our host in 2013.  Like I said I have about 5000 cumulative road/highway miles on it running 20W-50 high ZDDP oil.  Its tough to make claim the builder was at fault when I know material degradation failures do happen.  Doesent remove the fact this has the chance to be costly.  If anything it could shed light on quality and reliability in parts manufacturers.  I will post photos and updates as I make progress.

Post the name of engine builder please.  so we can avoid him. 

From the look of it the valves seem to be okay even with all the carbon....running a bit rich it would seem.  You can see the #1 exhaust valve is discolored in comparison to the rest but to the naked eye doesent look cracked....we shall see

just pulled the oil drain and look what I found.  I think im leaning more towards a cam at this point but we shall see.  I just hope the bearings are not toast as well.  The motor does turn over by hand freely and it was running just barely before I started this project.  I know for sure the oil pump has to go with this amount of stuff.

So here is a photo of the push rods.  As you can see the #1 exhaust all the way to the left is recessed more that the intake with cam lobes in neutral.

Hi everyone...I wanted to start this post to track the progress and solicit comments through this process.  I have a 1380 engine which was built by a professional which I believe either has a lobed that's been wiped or a lifter which is bad.  I bet money on the cam has failed.  I started to notice exhaust noise coming out my HIF44 carb....sounded like barking at high revs.....5000 RPM.  I originally thought i had a burnt valve but compression on all 4 cylinders read 170 PSI.  Removed the valve cover and that's where things got interesting.  #1 exhaust valve has about 3/8 of a gap between the pad of the rocker and the top of the valve.  Ill post some pics as the fun begins.  The question is why would an Elgin CAM003 get destroyed when it had only has approximately 5000 miles on it and used as a weekend road car.