Darn , taking it to a shop kind of defeats the LHU/LEA cam swap purpose of being dirt cheap.

 

The last 4 cam swaps I've done have been fixers. 2 costed guys heads for things breaking. So more or less I feel unless under the supervision of a professional technician, are a technician or are very mechanically inclinded. I don't feel people should be attempting this job even with a detailed how to.

 

Couldn't agree more.


ALSO, The GM service manual for the LNF does not give you specifics instruction for an actual camshaft "swap" without re-timing the engine. You use the service info as a reference only, NOT instructions. This is the part where you refer to the bold lettering above where i quoted Omiotek.

"Parts to replace" list:
ACCORDING TO GM...You will need to buy a cam gear tool, the HPFP cap sealant, assembly lube, new HPFP high pressure line, HPFP o-ring, HPFP paper gasket, valve cover gasket, cam gear bolt. They also say that the rocker arms MUST be replaced if you replace the camshaft. Mine were only 20k miles old so I decided against it. Plus they are not cheap, at all. I'm sure I'm missing a few parts/tools too. This is just what I can remember.

If you end up having to retime the engine, the "parts to replace" list gets even longer. Pulling the front cover on these with the limited space isn't very fun either, but it MUST be done if you are not 150% certain that the timing is perfect. It is VERY easy to slip a gear or the chain 1 tooth off. Again, refer to the bold lettering above where I quoted Omiotek.

 

I tell people have a manual for the general idea and specifications. It's good for reference. You still need to know what your doing or have help.

Remember something here folks. It's cheaper to pay a shop now then to pay a shop for your screw up. I also honestly feel it might be better for rookies to do this and regime the motor because getting the cams out with a holding tool and back in can be tricky and you can easily hurt the cams or cylinder head of not careful

Parts list for most engine services can be big. if your doing cams other then the fuel lobe cams or oem "upgraded" cams you should be doing valve springs as well. So in that case you need to retime the motor

 

Why do you need to retime the motor when doing springs?

 

if your doing springs in the car you need to rotate the motor around to close the valves and pressureize the cylinder to hold them up when the spring is removed. Also the cams need to be removed to even get the springs out easily.

So if you use a locking bar to lock the timing chain your not going to be able to rotate the engine.

 

So basically sounds like I shouldn't even try. There's no shops around here that do this stuff why I was going to do it

 

You can give it a try. take pics bag and tag all bolts, take your time and if you have questions ask the right people

 

In the long run it's not worth it with the amount in damage I could do. Cars gonna go to zzp have it installed with some other parts

 

I would have to respectfully disagree. The phaser locking tool allows you to lock your cam timing in place and also gives you just enough room to remove/install the cams. Once the phasers are locked in place and the cams are removed, there is absolutely no reason to rotate the engine in the least. As a matter of fact, you just doubled your work if you do. The cams are out, so every single valve is fully closed, which will of course now allow you to pressurize the cylinder. Just work your way down the line and pressurize one cylinder at a time. I just wrapped up a top end job. Not an issue.

 

You are right about that so credit to where its due . I will say 2 things though.

1. Not everyone has a locking bar nor will go out of their way to source or buy one.

2. I feel that in this case depending on mileage etc etc its always a good idea to look through the timing components to check for wear and other various things that could be wrong. prime example is i did a set of valve springs and cams for the guy. Forgot the locking bar at work so i decided i would just do it old school without it and retime the motor. Pull the plug out of the head to find whoever did the motor prior(different shop out of ohio) did not locktite one of the black guide bolts. It broke off and when it broke ovaled the hole so bad its not even worth fixing. Now the guy needs a head.

Interesting story is that he had the head gasket done at another shop in his state. he came in once before to do a wr3(where i found all sorts of issues with it from the shop, missing nuts, broken studs etc etc). its amaing the guy didnt notice all the exhaust leaks. well anyways i was driving it around after fixing everything and it had some timing chain noise. I pulled the tensioner out and found it broken so i put of of out tensioners in and the noise went away. the guy had it dyno tuned by us, drove it home to ohio, put make 10-15k over the corse of a year, came back to do cams, valve springs, and some other stuff and i find that broken stuff in the timing area the chain was rubbing the block in areas, and more or less destroyed everything that has to do with the timing chain with the exception of the gears. absolutely amazing the the engine survived like that all that. car made nearly 400whp too with those issues.

all i can say is im glad this time around i did not just put a locking bar in. so just a word of caution that depending on the circumstances i do recommend checking into that sort of stuff just to be 100% safe nothings going on or worn.

 

Anyone in Florida able to do cams on my LNF?