camshaft failure

[big gear head]

I'm building a 327 for my dad's 55 Chevy. I'm using a Comp Cams flat tappet hydraulic cam CS XE284H-10. I took it out of the box and was cleaning it to get it installed and I noticed that the lobes had a rough finish. I put it in my lathe and turned it slow while running a wire brush over the lobes. I used gray ScotchBrite after the brush and the lobes are smooth. I wonder if this has anything to do with the failures. Pictures are before and after. It's hard to tell in the pictures how rough the finish was before cleaning them.

[Too Many Projects]

Before pic looks like 100 grit sand paper. Looks a lot better after, but are you going to trust it, Freddie ?? Was the rough texture case hardening scale ? Seems it couldn't have been machining burrs if it came off with a wire brush.

[big gear head]

We are using the new diamond coated lifters on it, so I feel pretty good about it. I have no idea what the junk was that was on the lobes. It wouldn't come off in my mineral spirits tank. The wire brush took most of it off pretty easy. I heat treat metal all the time, and I'm pretty sure that this wasn't scale from heat treating it.