I thought I remembered someone saying that they had drilled a hole in their passenger inner fender that allowed them to remove the camshaft without pulling the engine out of the car. If this is the case, could you please explain to me exactly what you did as I will be doing the same thing in the VERY near future.
Thank you,
Shawn
It?s really pretty easy and well worth it. :D
Pull the cam out until the second bearing just protrudes from the block about 1/8?. Using a straight edge lay it on the first and second bearing and mark the fender well in 5 or 6 places going around the cam. You can use anything for the straight edge. I cut a piece of alum flat bar to length.
Find the center of your marks and drill a hole no larger than 3/16. Jack the car up so the front tire hangs free, (you make have to take the tire off although I didn?t) drill a 2 ? hole with a bimetal hole saw. That will give you about 3/16 clearance on each side to allow for any inaccuracies .
Get a 36? all thread the size of your cam gear bolts. Screw it into the top hole of the three holes. Remove cam using the all thread to support the cam so you don?t bang up the bearings. IE cheap cam removal tool. :roll:
If you do gouge the bearings the first two are easily replaced and they will be the ones you will gouge. Use Chevy V8 bearings at least in the first. (I use then through out, there wider and fit the front and rear journal much better than stock ones.) Just make sure the oil holes are lined up with the groove in the block.
To plug the hole in the fender I used .03 alum from the hardware store. Cut a circle 3 ? (I used scissors but shears would be easier) drill at least 4 holes equally spaced ? from the OD. I used 1/8 pop rivets to hold the cover on. If you use screws put them in from the outside. Locate the circle over the hole and drill and rivet or screw one hole at a time so they will all be lined up. Center punch the circle and fender for reference.
There's a picture on here or on w-body. Try a search.
This ought to get you going. Let us know how it works out.
Jud
Thank you, this will help me immensely. I should be doing the swap sometime in the next 3 weeks, so I will definately let you know how it goes. I will probably post updates throughout the whole project. (it isn't just gonna be a cam)
I'm sure I will be asking a lot of questions throughout the whole thing as well, because I'm sure my repair manual isn't going to tell me everything I need to know.
Shawn
Well, I pulled the cam out to the 2nd bearing, and thats all the further it will come out, I don't even know if 1/8" of it is sticking out. I don't know if your TGP is set up like my STE or not, the fender has like an indented area that looks like a major support, and then above that it goes out a couple inches (towards the outside of the car, not the engine bay) and looks like a weaker inner fender, like something I would be able to cut into, whereas the lower part doesn't look safe to cut into. Well, the center of the cam is right in the middle of those two. I don't know if maybe I need to drop the cradle down like an inch or something or raise it an inch or what, but I'm thinking I shouldn't cut a hole where it is right now. Did you have this problem?
Shawn
Don't know if I understand your problem. If you look at the picture of mine there is a white line about half inch from the bottom of the hole. That is a double thickness or reinforcment. If thats what your talking about
and you dont want to cut it just raise the motor up. (2 nuts). Take a picture of your inner fender. I have never seen a fender on a STE.
As far as the 1/8 all you need is enough of the second bearing sticking out to get a straight edge on to mark around the cam on the fender.
If you need an inside picture let me know.
Jud
An inside picture would be very helpful....
Thanks,
Shawn
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v297/sleeperred90tgp/CamHoleInside1.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v297/sleeperred90tgp/CamHoleInside2.jpg)
Here you are.
Thanks for the pictures. I took the nuts off the motor mount and jacked the engine up like an inch and a half. The cam then cleared the lower part that I was talking about. I drilled the hole in the higher part (I had a 2 1/8" hole saw already so I used that) and pulled the cam out. Inspected the bearings, they looked good, so I oiled the new cam and put it in. The stock cam suprisingly enough wasn't worn a lot. Obviously it did have some wear, but not too much.
If you look at those pictures and you go like an inch under where your hole is you see that there is that ledge sticking out like 2" more into the engine bay, well thats where my cam was...down there. It looks like its a major support so I figured I needed to jack the engine up and drill the hole higher...so I ended up drilling it pretty much exactly where yours it.
Thanks for the help...I greatly appreciate it.
Shawn
Congrats. :D I couldn't remember where my motor was in the car, It was all apart. All I know is it was in the car. :roll: I had to fuss with the motor location when I put the roller cam in.
If you can measure your cam lobes I would be curious how lobe 9 and 10 compare to the rest of them.
Just did a 3400 top end so if you need any pictures let me know.
Have fun.
Jud
I will probably be needing some help/pictures from the topend also...as I did with this, I will let you know. What did you use for a throttle cable out of curiosity...I just bought one from a '96 GP and it looks like its gonna work but I just wanna be sure. How about the intercooler to tb pipe (assuming you did this on a turbo)...it looks like it isn't going to line up properly. I'm sure I'll have a few little problems. Right now I just need to get the heads on and the exhaust manifolds ported. Got the new cam/crank sprockets on, the timing chain on, and the dampener. Its all lined up so it should run pretty good.
Also, I need the thermostat housing pipe (that runs from the upper radiator hose to the thermostat) for the 3100 intake and I'm wondering if you know what the part number is or where I can get one other than the dealer...it wasn't on the engine that I got the topend from.
The #9 & 10 lobes on the cam did appear to be a little more worn than the others, so I will measure them here eventually and let you know the results. I know that I compared the stock one to the 260 that went in and the 260 was DEFINATELY a bigger cam.
Thanks again,
Shawn
Shawn, I am worn out, were off to alaska at 7 am and have had to repack twice. Luggage wouldn't fit in the car. I did not get the pictures I said I would. Here are a couple of overviews.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v297/sleeperred90tgp/34004.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v297/sleeperred90tgp/34003.jpg)
If you still need some more detailed I'll do it for you when I get back in 2 weeks.
Sorry guy I just have run out of steam and time. :oops:
Jud
Jud, what did you end up using for a cam in that engine? Also, what about computer work...who did it (I'm assuming you, but not sure), and how much of it was required. The reason I ask is, I got the car all put together, and I'm planning on getting computer work done, but right now with the topgun 160 chip the car hesitatates when I step on the gas, and misses under boost, and the computer has pulled the boost as much as it can (I'm seeing 3psi). So what I'm wondering is if there is some other problem that I overlooked, or if the computer just needs to be tuned for the new stuff. I just wouldn't think it would run THAT bad.
Thanks,
Shawn
.480 lift/284* duration/112*LSA. The only issue I had was cold starts were extremly rich. A heated o2 helped a ton. But that was with 30# injectors which I contribute to the rich cold start condidion.
I had a cam about your size, .440 lift/266* duration/114* LSA 26# injectors with absoultly no issues. Both cams with the TG chip.
Your issues are elswhere. Ignition for the missing, maby vacuum for the hesitation. You have raised the compression so I would look at plugs first. You just have to check everything out.
As for low boost, if the motor don't work you won't get boost.
good luck and let us know how you do.
Jud