LMA replacement reveals bigger problem, what would cause this damage??

I noticed some valve-train noise and assumed the LMA's had had their day. So I took her off the road and got to work. The rear bank went perfect, so I got to the front bank and had an ohhhhh shit moment One intake cam journal was just completely chewed up. I would like to hear what you all think could/would cause this damage. It is ONLY on the one cam journal. It looks like an oil starvation issue, but why only that journal? The car was lightly tracked, approx 2 hours over the coarse of a full day on street tires. 100% stock car, oil was Mobile 1 (Switching to Liqui Moly). I have purchased new heads, which will get the full treatment (May or may not go over sized on the valves).

SwapDOHC said:

I noticed some valve-train noise and assumed the LMA's had had their day. So I took her off the road and got to work. The rear bank went perfect, so I got to the front bank and had an ohhhhh shit moment One intake cam journal was just completely chewed up. I would like to hear what you all think could/would cause this damage. It is ONLY on the one cam journal. It looks like an oil starvation issue, but why only that journal? The car was lightly tracked, approx 2 hours over the coarse of a full day on street tires. 100% stock car, oil was Mobile 1 (Switching to Liqui Moly). I have purchased new heads, which will get the full treatment (May or may not go over sized on the valves).
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you have a gauled intake cam journal, almost certainly due to lack of lubrication. Even momentary lack of lubrication like you would get from a sharp turn on a track.
recut cap/bore/hone, take it to a decent machine shop, they do this in their sleep.
I can't believe you bought new heads, wow that was expensive.

Regarding the LMAs, what Model Year is the car? If you have the older piston type ones, they need to be replaced, but you can't do it by just lifting the Vtec lobe and replacing it, it won't come out. You have to remove the rocker-shaft and physical lift the lobes out of the way to get to the LMAs. (But yes you can test them by just moving the lobe up and pushing the LMA in&out)

Picture #3 , you oil guide is clogged with crap (gasket material, or old oil, or just plain sludge) maybe this explains why only one cam journal got beat up

If the oil pump was starved in a corner, would there be damage on all the caps? This was the only affected cap, the rest are perfect.
No sludge in this girl, she is clean as a whistle The material in the oil guide is aluminum from the cam journal, had to pushed through the oil passage feeding the cam journal, I can only see that being possible if there were no oil passing through??
My concern is a repeat failure. I am installing an oil baffle and considering an oil pump upgrade.
The damaged head will go the machine shop with the new heads, but the shops who have seen the pictures say it is un-repairable ( Plus I got both heads with cams for $500 ).
As far as the LMA they are the early version and are being replaced with the SOS bee hives.