Fuck my shit up

>decide to bang out 120k mile timing service myself over the weekend
>while everything's apart also decide to change out all the front seals / shit since it's easy to reach
>get first few seals out no problem, last cam seal is a struggle
>literally feels like someone welded it in there, everything's bouncing off this seal and it's not budging an inch
>after an hour of fucking with this one seal get impatient and just bludgeon it with a screwdriver
>mfw finally pull seal out and there's a scratch on the camshaft

fucking kill me Veeky Forums, this shit better not cause a huge fucking oil leak. why do idiots like me even try to do their own work on cars, should have ponied up the extra money and gone to a mechanic. can you guys please pray for me? I sanded and polished the scratch to make sure it didn't snag on anything, all that's left now is to put it back together and hope it doesn't start leaking.

times you fucked up while wrenching thread?

>scratched cam shaft
>makes scratch worse by sanding and polishing it

Seriously how stupid are you?
Cam shafts don't cause oil leaks either.
Lrn 2 car

The cam's covered by a seal, if the scratch snags the seal then the seal will fuck up and start leaking. I didn't literally sand down the scratch to nothing, just hit it with some extra fine paper to make sure it didn't catch.

I think you're over reacting dude. Like forreal

What engine? If you're that worried about it you could probably get an oem cam from a pick n pull for cheap

VG30DE. Changing the cams would be a huge bitch. I'd rather just start it up when I'm done putting back the timing shit and idle it for a bit with no cover on to make sure there's no leaks. If it is leaking I'll probably end up doing that or just ordering a single cam online somewhere.

Nah replacing a cam ain't so bad

m8 don't stress, you're bound to fuck some shit up on your path to spanner-spinning glory.

Sand it back with fine sandpaper and see how it looks, if you're a bit iffy on it go and buy a stock cam from a wrecker or something.

If its your DD then you kinda goofed, catch the bus for the next couple of days or something

fuck, I'm not to great with wrenching so for me it'll be a struggle. If it comes to it yeah I'll tear it apart and give it a try but fuck here's hoping it works fine on the first start

>m8 don't stress, you're bound to fuck some shit up on your path to spanner-spinning glory.

yeah that's what my father (ex-mechanic) said when I called him asking for advice when I got the scratch. Thankfully it's not my only car so I can drive something else for a while but it still feels like shit when you're trying to learn how to wrench and you fuck shit up, you know?

>I'm not to great with wrenching so for me it'll be a struggle.
yet your doing your own timing service and replacing your own seals, more than the average car diyer can (wants to) manage

I dunno, the way I see it there's a difference between wanting to learn and actually having the know how to do shit. Yeah I might be slightly more motivated than the averager diyer to do slightly harder jobs but it does't mean I have the actual wrenching know how to complete it quickly and correctly. It'll all come with time and experience though, I'm sure in a few years I'll be less prone to fuck ups like these.

>should have ponied up the extra money and gone to a mechanic
If you ever spent 15 minutes watching a mechanic work, then you would know that they are no smarter than you.

Why did you replace the seals if they weren't leaking? You made a problem out of nothing.

If it were my engine I'd not sand anything back. If it's a minor scratch it won't do shit. If it's a huge scratch run a thinner oil and consider buying a new cam but still it's not a big deal. Oil flows over the bearing surface and the scratch might cause faster wear but over many tens of thousands to 100,000mi really.
Sanding it back will fuck up the valve timing or fuck up the balance of the cam depending on its location. Take this as a learning experience. Use plastic pry-bars to remove seals and stubborn covers. They're cheap, they don't scratch anything except worn out seals and should be common. And don't go fucking with what aint broke.

A "real mechanic" would have left the original in place if it wasn't leaking, and then charged him for a new one.

Did you read the part where the seal was hard as a rock?

>I sanded and polished the scratch

are you retarded or did your thinking get impaired due to engine fumes?

thought that while the seals were exposed anyways I might as well change them for peace of mind seeing as they were last replaced 11 years ago

I didn't sand the scratch out though, just went over it with fine grit to make sure the scratch edges don't snag the seal where they would touch each other. Could that really fuck me if it was really minor? Literally went over it very carefully a few times, stopping to check with a toothpick every time if running it around the cam flat snagged on that scratch. Would that still fuck it up?

>Take this as a learning experience
yeah fuck, I think I will. If (knock on wood) the engine makes it another 60,000 miles I'll definitely be more careful when I do the timing again.

And if it does start to leak, good excuse to put in some hotter cams.

>If you ever spent 15 minutes watching a mechanic work, then you would know that they are no smarter than you.

Speaking as a dealership wrench, this is 100 percent, totally, incredibly...

...Correct. The only thing that a professional mechanic has that you don't is probably a much bigger box of tools, and access to either Alldata or Identifix (or SI, if you're a Chevy tech), along with factory service manuals. And likely a few years of experience. And we still fuck up on the regular.

Besides, there's so many kinds of mechanics at all different skill levels that there's no such thing as a "real" mechanic. I work with some guys who have blue gears who couldn't get out of a paper bag with a razor knife.

And if you seriously went so far as to check the scratch with a toothpick, you went WAY farther than most of us would. You're gonna do good, man.

Nah dude, if you smooth down the scratch then you're all good.

this is why i go to a shop

nope

Most of the ppl replying have never even held a camshaft in their hands. Hell, many of them don't even own their own car. You're fine op, don't worry about a little scratch.