I am trying to pull the cam out of my ls3. all pushrods and rockers are out. slide the dowel in the left side of the motor went right in. i went to put the right side in and it gets stuck in the same place everytime. i tried spining the cam, turning the motor upside down to make the lifters fall tords the heads and still can't get it in. these are 5/16 metel dowels tapered on the end and have been used before to do cam swaps in other ls1 motors. so do i have a problem with this motor? or is this not the right dowel size for ls3/l92?

this is starting to make me wonder about this motor i got

 

Why are you using the dowels for a motor not in the car?
I personally have never used anything to hold up the lifters, and out of maybe 200 cam installs have only had to use a couple pen magnets on maybe two or three cars.

 

are you suggestion just to turn the motor upside down swap the cam out then turn it right side up again? that thought crossed my mind today. it just woried me that that dowel wouldn't go in there like something was not right?

 

I doubt that anything's wrong, I think I remember reading that the dowels don't work on every block due to the holes not being completely true from front to back on one side of the block, or something like that?? I'd just flip the engine upside down and install the cam that way

 

^^ready for my cam install guys!

 

geez... that right there sucks!!!

im ready for my cam install but i think im gonna keep my tires on the ground :nunchuk1:

 

put some lube on the dowels,if u havent

 

Leave the motor right side up!

Just spin the cam real hard and pull it out! In the very, very, unlikely event that a lifter does fall... it will be too easy to pull the pan!

I'm in Bartlett and Ill give you a hand doing it if you want! If the lifter drops I'll even fetch it for ya!

 

He'll have to pull the pan and a head, and have to buy a head gasket...if a lifter does fall that is (unlikely as you mentioned)

 

just turn it upside down. prior to installing it in the car of course.