I have this terrible rattle coming from the front of my car, I think I've narrowed it down to my timing chain rattling around. So my question is, how hard is it to change the timing chain AND gears. And if at all possible would this be the best time to throw a different cam in? I have an LT1 cam coming soon (i hope). I am somewhat mechanically inclined, but havent done much work on cars(with the exception of toyotas) so if this is all something i can do on my own, thats even better.

Thanks much,
-BJ

 

with teh right tools on hand and some help you can do a cam swap in a day if you really bust your but at it. plan on taking a weekend to do it and take your time to do it right since this is your first. it is not difficult to change the cam or chain per say, there is just a bunch of other stuff sitting in front of the parts you want to get to.

later
tim

 

Two Things:

1. So the cam might take me a whole weekend, no biggie, but what about if i were to only do the timing chain and gears? Or should they all be done at once because I've already ripped out the front of the car and now have room to do the cam?

2. Is it necesarry to replace the lifters and springs when putting in the LT1 cam? Or will they hold up?

-BJ

 

it wont take but maybe a couple hours more to swap the cams. swaping just the gears and chains shouldnt take that long....

you will need a couple special tools....
a harmonic balancer puller and a 4'' gear puller.

about 20$ each at advance

 

Swappping the cam takes some time... one thing i hear is that the timing cover is a bit of a bitch to get back on w/o fully dropping the pan, not to metion all the crap that has to come off. Im probably jsut gonna put a cam in when i get a new trans. Ill just pull teh motor + trans to make it as painless as possible.

 

Whats so bad about dropping the pan? good time to put a new gasket in if you ask me.......

 

well.. heres the problem, you cant change the gasket witht eh engine in the car, not easily, anyway. YOur best bet, if your motor isnt swamped with smog stuff, is to pull it (assuming you have a bad leak, my old 305 did). On mine, i wouldnt do it any other way. If yours is and the pan is leaking, you can jack the motor up by the HB and slip in a new gasket, its a pain but the best way would be to pull the motor and cahnge all teh gaskets, and teh rear seal while your at it and reisntall only the necessary stuff. I love my engie compartment. Its almost as simple as a 50's carb setup w/o all the extranious crap. Of coarse the only thing in my car is the driveline and teh two front seats. allt eh rest of the stuff is out of the car.

 

that sucks, your in california so the smog ****'s say you have to keep all the smog crap.

 

Im in cali, so I need to keep all my emissions stuff on so the smog ***** dont get me. I also have my ac hooked up too. I really should get under the car and tak a look around asn see all this stuf for myself. This is my second Camaro, and I always had shops do my work on my previous car, so this time around i wasnt to do as much work as possible.

 

avoid the shops, theyll charge out the ***. Probably best jsut to lift teh motor up to slip on the new gasket while your doing the cam. Theres a little more to it than that but thats the general way to attack it if you want to change the gasket.