Corrosion on camshaft?

[dasrider]

I recently swapped out the valve covers on my '16 5.0 with the fancy GT500 aluminum covers p/n M6067-M52S. With the covers off I noticed some nasty corrosion on the camshaft phasers (edited), it was like this on both engine banks. Car has 60,000 miles, I just picked it up in June with about 53,000 from the original owner. No engine mods other than a H-pipe I fitted a couple of months ago.

Original owner babied the car, garage kept, regular oil changes, 1x new set of tires, a battery but that's about it. Car runs and drives fine, no issues so far. I've had covers off lots of cars and motorcycles over the years and have never seen this kind of corrosion before. First Mustang, is this typical?

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[MrMike]

Here is mine on the same side for comparison. Maybe I'm missing something in your pic, but I just see a bit of wear on the camshaft. Your cam phasers aren't looking so great though.

 

[dasrider]

You're right, I mean the phasers showing corrosion. Still, curious how rust could form like that

 

[Timbuck]

I had light rust like that on brand new ford performance phasers straight from the packet when I rebuild my motor.

 

[EFI]

My guess is they were not stored properly prior to being installed and developed some light surface rust. But once inside the engine, the rust stopped progressing due to oil coating.

It's not something I would worry about. none of those surfaces are in contact with anything else.

 

[dasrider]

I have to admit I needed to do some research on phasers and associated VCTs. Sounds like something I may need to address down the road on these coyote 5.0s. Agreed the surface corrosion shouldn't affect operation theoretically. Wish I would have checked for any unusual play when I had the covers off, but oh well. Car is running like a champ and those aluminum covers do look nice! Plus no more oil leaking onto the headers which prompted this whole saga.

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