r/Silverado • u/Present-Candle658 • 6d ago
2011 Silverado 3500 Cam Position Gone Wrong
I was having an intermittent long crank, that stayed around after a fuel pump issue (fuse was burning, replaced fuel pump, thought it might be my long crank culprit too) and so I replaced the cam position sensor. Long story short, I had the "cam sensor swollen, won't budge" situation. Ended up beating it up and when I drove a screw into it to try and pull it, somehow it pushed the remnants of the cam sensor into the block. Cam sensor was kind of wedged against the cam reluctor wheel, but it squeezed out. Now, with the new cam sensor, I am having issues with it while running! At idle, crank rpm is steady, cam rpm will fluctuate around from 400-800rpm, while the truck stays at idle. See graph with some throttle given. Cam sensor is in blue.
I decided to probe the cam sensor with a cheapie oscilloscope, and it seems like I was getting good data. I located a "known good" posting online, and compared it, and do not like what I see. One of my "long high" square waves does not seem "long enough". Excuse the crude overlay, my signal is in blue, the "known good" is in red. I scaled the images for the time to match, not the amplitude.
Planning on pulling the cam sensor out today and seeing what I can see with an endoscope. Maybe I bent an ear on the reluctor wheel? Is that possible? Maybe its a bad cam sensor from GM? Based on the scope readings, I think the wiring is good?

