97LX 2.2L cracked camshaft
 

The cam gear was found to be loose on the shaft although the bolt holding it on was tight. Cam key is deformed and a crack radiates through the bolt hole.2 questions: has anyone seen this before and can shed light on the cause? and, will a replacement cam last or do I need to replace both the head and the cam? Well maintained, timing belt is a year old. Have a great day! signed, "there goes all my fun money."

RE: 97LX 2.2L cracked camshaft
 

If you mean the keyway where the distributor key enters the slot on the camshaft, it might be possible to damage the keyway w/ improper installation of the distributon. I did this once, but damaged the distributor rather than the camshaft. Only bolt-hole in the camshaft holds the timing sprocket in place on the camshaft.

Also the Lx has have the camshaft assy removed to access the orings that isolate the spark plug tubes. If someone did this job improperly, they might have damaged the camshaft,

... or maybe your car was that 1/100000 w/ a crack in the parent forging that was undetected by NDE. I'm sure it happens.

good luck

cracked camshaft too
 

I am actually dealing with a head gasket leak / repairs using help from this forum, but I have the same engine only a 96 version, and after taking the cam out I noticed mine was also deformed and cracked, so I guess thats 2/1,000,000

Hard to say why it cracked. Number the brearing caps and put an arrow on top to keep same orientation, then remove. Your problem would be a bent camshaft, and looking at the bearing wear and camshaft journals you should get a good idea if you see uneven wear. If you can rotate the gear by hand and you don't see bearing wear you're ok. Just replace and install caps back.

If I understood your post, the camshaft sproket was loose, woodruff key was damaged, and a crack radiates from the hole which the camshaft retainer bolt threads into.

This suggests something stopped the camshaft which is driven by the timing belt, causing the woodruff key to attempt to shear. Key might jam and wedge into space between sprocket and camshaft causing the crack.

This might also cause misalgnment of crankshaft and camshaft timing and potentially damage valves.

It is unclear what might cause camshaft to be stopped. Perhaps a binding valve (hitting piston). This might cause enough resistance to shear the camshaft woodruff key. If someone were turning the crankshaft manually, this might be more likely.

good luck