Camo guy's thread about cams

[tms8582]

You might want to take a look at your cam bearings when you pull the old cam. The bearings should be silver/grey with very little gold showing. It is common for the LIM gasket to leak coolant on the cam and wear out the bearings.... happened to me when I planned on doing a cam install. That project turned out into a full motor rebuild for me. Also like Bill said with a higher lift cam you will want stronger springs... usually 105's for a stage 1 type cam. I'd change the water pump and install the new aluminum elbows too. You might want to consider changing the hoses if they are the original ones.

[camopaint0707]

Headgaskets are rarely a issue unless you plan to remove the heads to install the valve springs I would skip that.

Do I need to remove the head gasket to do the swap? (never done a cam swap before)

Assuming that while you are doing the cam, you are doing the timing chain, springs, retainers, valve seals. I personally don't do the crank seal unless it's leaking.

I would suggest the rear engine cover seal. And use some blue loctite when reassemebling it. Reason being is these bolts have low torque from the factory and this allows the gasket to seep. It appears as an oil pan leak that you can't seem to seal. Once you are done with the cover, then the oil pan is the next logical gasket. That will give you nearly all new gaskets.

Consider an oil pressure kit while you are at it.

I think there is an oil leak on the car currently and that might be it. It's getting AC recharged so I'll ask them to take a look at it. I am upgrading the springs and retainers with the cam. I'll add the timing chain for sure. Valve seals? Like the valves on the head? And would the rear engine seal be taken out during the cam swap or are you just suggesting that as maintenance anyway.

Easier to replace the crank seal when you do all that..I took the easy way and left mine alone when I did the cam swap and shortly after had to go back and change it I also change the CPS while I was there since I already had a new one sitting on the shelf.

CPS is crank position sensor?

You might want to take a look at your cam bearings when you pull the old cam. The bearings should be silver/grey with very little gold showing. It is common for the LIM gasket to leak coolant on the cam and wear out the bearings.... happened to me when I planned on doing a cam install. That project turned out into a full motor rebuild for me. Also like Bill said with a higher lift cam you will want stronger springs... usually 105's for a stage 1 type cam. I'd change the water pump and install the new aluminum elbows too. You might want to consider changing the hoses if they are the original ones.

I did get a new LIM to put on. Would the cam bearings be replaced with the new cam or not? Like I said never done a swap before. And I might do the water pump too since the engine is gonna be pretty dismantled at this point.

[camopaint0707]

PS bill what exactly is an oil pressure kit? Never heard of it.