No no you want the #1 on the cap. Since you pulled the distributor out it is not as crutial to line up the base that much. You are startning from scratch by rotating the engine over. You have to make sure that when you slide in the distributor its final resting place is on the #1 on the cap. Since it turns as you rotate it you have to start it slightly tunred so that it ends up on the #1. You can rotate the base slightly if it is off by a nudge.

 

So I want the crank at TDC, with piston #1 at the very height of it's stroke? Walk me through how to put the cam in at proper timing because that seems like a hard part


:hail:

 

Well it is actually easy. Just slide the cam in very carefully anfd slowly apply a downward pressure to it to keep it from bouncing off the cam bearings as you slide it in. After it is in you will want to spin it around so that when you put the cam sproket back on its dot is alligned with the dot on the crank gear. When they are dot to dot you have it in right and you are on the firing position for #6. Now rotate the engine 180* so that the dots are both at 12 oclock and you will now be at TDC for the firing stroke of #1. When the balancer is at zero you are at true TDC.

 

First make sure you are on #1 top dead center, which should be pretty easy for you, lol. Also, don't forget to lube the cam up pretty good. Then when you get the heads and intake back on use an old distributor cap with a hole cut in it to help point the rotor at the #1 firing position in the cap. It should slide right in.

 

oh wow that's simple as hell. I was scared but that made it seem so much easier and comforting

 

Token-
You are doing a lot of work to your ride- It is excellent.
Please be aware, though, that Brian, no matter how good, has limits: not due to his know-how, but rather to the physical distance between you two. Please know a lot of tuning will be required to get your car running top-notch. This is not cut at Brian- he does well (I planned to use him until I read & understood all the tech articles and bought all the buring equipment). I just can't help but stress the number of tuning interations that will be necessary for proper perfomance.
There is no replacement for the personal (user) data-log/interpret/modify/burn/install/test cycle.
I have pinned fine tuning hopes on the Prominator shipping soon- I expect that it will reduce the cycle time (by eliminating the modify/burn/install/test). Just thinking about those advantages makes me all the more appreciative of the guys that have been carrying the torch for the last 10 years.
Hope all goes well- keep up the good work- I can't say enough about build ups that will put the smack down on unsuspecting foes. I get a laugh out of the guys that are killing themselves to beat me and my shabby RS TBI. Particularly the guy with the LT1 Impala SS that cannot figure out how I can smoke both meats on command. It's just funny.
Let us know how it all turns out-
S-D

 

I plan on getting ALDL info and sending it to brian. he has done plenty of LT1/Vortec/AirGap combos before, so it will be drivable until we get me fully tuned

 

Driveable- you're half way there. Final tuning is a differnt story.
With the laptop to log WinALDL, you're getting closer. By adding the Prominator to your current setup, you're on your way. It seems like a long way off, but wth some bolt torquing and whatnot, you will be ready.
Whatever your choice, good luck-
Keep posting results-
S-D

 

So today I only got a little bit accomplished considering that I had over an inch of snow on the hood. That was really depressing so I decided to wait until the afternoon to get to work. By then the snow had somewhat melted and I was able to push it off. I scraped the gaskets flat with a scraper and cleaned out the cylinders with a paintbrush. I wiggled the new cam in place with tons of lube on it. This cam lube is probably the stickiest grease in my car aside from the wheel bearings. Took me longer to get the cam lube off my hands than it did to get the cam in. I put the cam retainer back on, and then popped the lifters back in their valleys. I had the lifters soaking overnight in Castrol Syntec Blend (not like it matters) and dotted the rollers with cam lube. Then I put the lifter guides back on and rotated the cam with my hand. Wow, those lifters go way up!

 

glad you mentioned the cam lube.


i got some bad news for ya


you need to pull the cam back out and clean off that lube.


you use break in cam lube like that on flat tappet cams.

on rollers, it gums them up.... you just need to oil it good with some regular motor oil.... a lil thicker weight oil if its going to be a lil while before you start it..

generally, i'll pour a quart over it just before i re install the intake...




hate to be the bringer of bad news, but its better then scarfing the cam...... sorry dude.

 

Wrong. using the cam lube is completely ok. it will not gum anything up. When I did heads and cam on my LS1 I put ARP assembly lube on all the lobes and everything is perfect. Don't even waste your time pulling the cam back out. You did the right thing.

 

I put a healthy dose of lube on my cam as well. You can get away with regular old oil for roller cams but the lube is just extra protection until oil can get circulated around your engine if it has been sitting and drained for awhile.

 

there is a very high chance that the thicker cam lube will gum up the roller, causing it to not spin, and it galls the cam.


im not talking out myass.. im dead serious..


i have SEEN this happen to two motors... a early 90s pickup and a "retro lifter" equipped 400.... the motor will still run, but it'll run cruddy.
i know you MIGHT be able to get away with it.. if it all melts and you change it out and it doesnt make the roller stick... and i know people have gotten away with it.

matter of fact id give 60/40 odds that it will go without a problem.

id just hate to see him frag it and have to tear it back out because of somthing i could have helped prevent by mentioning.

at the very least, clean off the rollers and spray the lifter bores with some carb cleaner or somthing and try to get any excessive lube off.

 

eek, that's no good. I was told cam lube is safe on all cams though. should we poll the general tech forum to get a consensus of using cam lube on a roller cam?


I think I will. I'm fairly worried, but still remaining strong to my theory that cam lube is safe

 

Well I used it on mine and so did shifty and I'm sure lots of other people. I don't see why not. Think about it. If the rollers on the lifters some how don't spin, which I don't see how they can't. The lube is gonna melt before any damage can be done regardless. It doesn't make any sense to me. Also, you have a far greater risk damaging the bearings pulling the cam back out and in again than you would with the lube. It's safe and I've proven it, but whatever floats your boat.

 

and assuming they DO lock up, it would just act like a flat tappet lifter and not do a lot of harm anyway, right?

 

I am pretty sure that the newer lubes dissolve rather quickly. I believe the crane cams stuff i bought said that it was hydraulic roller safe on the back. I have seen some guys that only put the lube on the cam bearings and leave the lobes alone. I put a thin coat on my lobes because the car had sat for almost a year and a half and I had all of the oil drained out of it for 2 weeks. I didn't want to risk burning a lifter up because it ran dry for a minute or so. There is some truth to what he says but I think it is not necesarry with todays lubricants. A little heat and regular oil will dissovle the lube in no time after start-up. That is another reason why they recomend to let the car run at 2000 rpm with a new cam. Roller cams do not really need to be broken in but some people still recomend it.

 

I don't think I'm going to break in my cam, just because it's a used cam in a used engine with everything being used. I'll play around with it the first few minutes I get everything finished and running. I'm just a crazy guy like that I guess.

 

Token,

Roller cams do not require any break in. when i install them, i just give them a healthy dose of motor oil, and slid it in

 

Today I accomplished quite a bit. See for yourself.






I even set the lash.

 

After dinner I worked into the night

 

Nice! Looks good man, good job.

 

Holy crap, you worked your butt off. Nice, FAST work man.

 

Hope I didn't forget anything along the way! We'll find out if I have extra parts or not, lol

 

(right before you start the engine) "Dude, what are those 16 long metal rods doing under your car?"

 

I wish I knew how to set valve lash.

 

It is easy. It is ever easier to do when you are doing a cam swap and can rotate the egnine to set it cold. If you can turn a wrnech and feel for a tighness while turning the pushrods than you are more than qualified.

 

How to set valve lash

 

Gotta give you an attaboy!! I feel for you. Outside? I'm here in Georgia with a garage and I still don't get out there until it's fiftysomething. LOL

DM

 

fifty something ???


you haven't lived until you have done a motorswap while it was below freezing.

 

I put the key in, turned the ignition, and there was nothing. No crank, no click, no sound, I don't even recall the fuel pump priming. I do believe the battery is dead, so I am charging it now. I don't have a multi-meter here, so I can't test. Anyone wanna offer me suggestions as to what's wrong? Possibly neutral safety switch, so I'll try that later. I'm pretty sure VATS was disabled on my chip but I emailed Brian to make sure. When I put the car to ON (but not crank) theres no SECURITY light that usually comes on.

the battery only read 10v

 

I did my cam swap when it was 12 degrees out. The building that the car was in was about 19. Even after I fired up the propane heaters it only got up to about 40 in there. 50 is awesome to wrench in.

I would go over every last single wire to make sure you have everything hooked up right. Did you remember to re-attach all of the grounds on the back side of the passenger head?

 

pretty sure I got them all, I'll go check again.

 

IT IDLES NICELY! About 500 rpm, very lopey. I am trying to tinker with the timing a little bit more, so far its at 3*. I'm staying in contact with Brian to help me tune it.


If I gas it, then let off sharply, it stalls. But it runs fine held at higher rpms. I havent taken it to WOT yet...

 

sweet news, always nice to here a success story... so it fired right up after the batter was charged? thats always good. good luck getting it all tuned, if you can post a sound clip of it i'd love to here it. overall good work!

 

Yep...a good excuse to kick back and watch Speed Channel

LOL

You can have that cold stuff!! If it was up to me it would not get below 60......

 

it shot fire out of the TBI at WOT, lol
what does that mean? too much timing?

 

Token, isthat new carb manifold emmisions legal? And what manifold is it?

 

it's the Edelbrock Performer RPM Air Gap, and I believe there is an EGR option. Mine however does not have EGR.

 

The car runs excellent now!
I just forgot to reconnect the timing wire, causing the timing to be fixed at 3* the whole time, instead of using the computer's configurations for the timing curve. WOW You would never believe that it's a different top-end! It's so damn smooth! I am in the process of modifying the linkage to fit with the new manifold and TBI. Until then, I'm staying off the road I am so excited guys.

Thanks to everyone for their help, especially ShiftyCapone. I would have never even attempted this project if I didn't know I had such a supportive forum to help. Welcome the latest L03 to the 14s assuming it runs correctly !!!

 

Great to hear. It is good to see first time modders have such good luck with an extensive project like this. You will have to report back when you get it on the road.

 

Definitely looks sweet. NICE work.

*TechSmurf wiggles his way under Token's car and looks at his 700r4*

I bless thee oh 700r4 that thee might live through the hell you are about to face...
In nomine patris, et familias, et spiritu soncti.
*TechSmurf makes a small cross-like motion in the direction of the 700r4*

 

It should be fine. He is probaly still only makeing a solid 250 now and that is well within the capasity of the 700R4. I know another individual that has almost an identical set-up and he has about 500 time slips sitting in his passenger seat without so much as a hiuckup.

 

Congrats man Lets hope the tuning goes better than mine! Im happy to see people are running this setup now, when I finally get a good tune down Im gonna put my bin out there then the swap will be freakin easy for everyone

 

You are such a nice guy. Shouldn't you be studying and not posting at the library We can also use my bin for a full exhaust, stock heads, and LT1 cam for people to try out. My combo is not as severe and will match a lot of modders who use the stock TBI, pump, and injectors.

 

I love that movie.

 

I was going more for the priestly effect than a boondock saints reference.. I want the tranny to live, not die =P

 

The car isn't starting now! It cranks, struggles, then catches on fire. I didn't change anything from yesterday, and it's just not working. What to do? I drove it last night and my power brakes don't work (I need help with that)


What do I do????

 

compression test... misadjusted valves, possibly. lifters pumped up and valves are trying to hang open.

 

did you hook up the vacuum line from the brake booster to the intake manifold