Just walked in from the garage. New cam is in the motor. Springs and stuff yet to go. Only about 3 hours to get to this point.

A real scare pulling the old cam out. About a quarter of the way out we hear this clank clank.... damn $%#%# was the first thoughts Slid the cam back in and went to each lifter with a pushrod and they are still there. PHEW! Now what the heck made the noise Pull the rag out of the front timing cover and the timing chain had slide down into the oil pan is what we heard. For about 5 minutes was certian we were going to have to pull the heads to dig out a lifter. So far so good, just hope the spring install goes well and can get the darn crank balancer on smoothly and torqued right.

 

I'd have been sh!ttin' bricks when I heard that Happy to hear it was just the chain!

 

LOL!!!! I dropped a bolt in the oil pan when I pulled the cam cover off. I was thinking oh well time to pull the pan. I got lucky and fished it out with a pen magnet.

 

I just read the ls1howto.com article on the cam swap becasue I will be doing one in the near future, so if you don't get a special lfter tool, and one of them falls you have to take the heads off??? That suxs, anybody know who sells those pen magnet things?

 

on the crank pulley the auto parts sells and installation tool for that. i had to cut the main body on mine to get it to work.i think i payed 25.00 for the whole kit.

 

Yeah if you loose a lifter minimum are the heads off. Don't know if they can fall down into the oil pan. Know you would have to have the heads off to put it back in. Forgot to mention when I "thought" I had dropped a lifter I did have my homemade holder tools in place. 5/16" steel rods cut to lenght and bent for a handle. Grind a small flat on one side. I was like WTF this isn't supose to happen

 

I bought a Sears 3 Jaw puller just for this. It worked perfectly. I was more concerned with getting it torqued to spec. I bought a specialty tool to hold the balancer for tightning it. Used a longer crank bolt to get it started on the crank, put in the old bolt, cranked it to 250 ft lbs, removed it, installed a new bolt, torqued to 37 ft/lbs then cranked it 140 degrees. Me (250Lbs) standing on the tool to hold it still, by buddy with a 2 ft breaker bar and 2 ft pipe got it there I have read to many posts of guys with blowers spinning their crank pullies.

Its all in, started right up, took a 30 mile drive to get it to "lean" to idle again. Not enough driving to report on how the cam is performing. Does seem to pull much better 4500 to 6000.

 

My guess is you hear a little more action under the hood as well....I had a nice 'whirr' going on with more air into the motor. Very nice....keep us posted as you know more.

 

Been cruising a bit. SOTP tells me its pulling better everywhere! Especially noticable top end. It DOES sound meaner. Under power you can hear the blower of course, but getting that good header sound now. The exhaust note at WOT is awakened. I think its the 4 degrees advance putting power down in the lower RPM's.

One thing to note. With a 3.25 pulley, before cam I was pulling 8 psi boost,steady. Cool evenings would see almost 9 at shifts. Now at 6.5 psi boost. She is definately breathing better!

Thanks for the advise on the cam, I love it!

 

You're very welcome. It's nice when your experience can benefit others.