Hey all,

I was just wondering, I just got my LT1 cam today in the mail and was wondering. What does it take to isntall this bad boy in a 305 TBI? Also..I should ask, has anyone installed this in their stock L03 without doing any other mod? If so how did it respond and did you tune? I don't have the equipement for tuning just datalogging right now.

 

You need to upgrade your valve springs and get a new timing chain. It is not wise to re-use either of these two things. It may be a good time to replace your valve seals as well since you will have everything apart. The cam swap is easy. You unbolt a bunch of stuff and then bolt it back together. I know this is vague but I don't feel like typing a how to since you can find one already on the boards. Don't forget all of the new gaskets you will need as well. It is pointless to do a mod of this magnitude (even as small as the LT1 cam is) without chip work. Without chip work your car will idle and run like poo. You could even be doing damage to it as well because your fuel and timing tables need adjustment and you could be really lean in areas. A few searches will tell you exaclty how to install the cam. Check on the engine board for that since every cam swap is basically the same for any small block with the only differences in how you remove its equipt induction (carb, TBI, TPI ect). But please please search. All of these questions have been asked 395797598759375937 times and you should have your answer in a matter of a few minutes. Because I am so confident that you will find your answer I will close this one down for now. If you have any questions that are not answered please post back up.

Well because I am up late I will give you a quick run down

Drain coolant
remove radiator and move AC condensor aside
pull the dizy
remove intake manifold
remove valve covers
remove rocker nuts and pull pushrods (set aside and label them so you put them back in the same spot)
remove the water pump and balancer pullies
remove water pump
pull the harmonic balancer (rent a puller from autozone or buy one for 15 bucks)
remove timing cover
remove timing chain (you need a gear puller to get the crank pulley off)
remove cam locking plate
pull cam slowly trying to avoid it bouncing off or banging into the cam bearings

Install is reverse of removal (you will need a valve spring compressor to change these).

It helps to have a crank key to turn the motor over so that you can get TDC when installing the timing chain

Put #1 at TDC
Install the timing chain so that you are dot to dot (you are at #6 firing)
now rotate the engine so that the cam and crank gears are at 12 oclock (now you are #1 firing)
put everything back on
Install the dizzy so that the rotor points to the #1 plug wire terminal
fire motor, set timing


A simple cam swap will require your motor to be down to this state

 

Well I guess I will get a mechanic to install this cam..however I think I will wait until I can get new heads and rebuld them with better springs and such. Also I will wait until I have the proper equipement to get a good tune done on the car after the install. Thanks for the reply shifty, greatly apreciated.

 

If you want to pay a guy $600.00 to put in a $40.00 cam that is up to you. I have done 2 in the past 2 months and about to do another they take about 10 hours to do and yes they are a pane in the a@@ but there worth it. you can reuse the timing chain and springs but it is easer to change them now then any other time. I put one in a stock 305 and it has really helped it we did that one for free reused the chain and springs burnt a chip for it and that is it. Before the cam it ran a 16.4 @ 84 we will have times on Friday with the new cam so you can see the difference with just a cam and chip on a stock 92 bird

As far as heads if you want to put that much $$$ into a 305 that is cool but that in a 350 and get more for the $$$

 

Isn't there something you have to grind off the LT1 cam before putting it in a thirdgen block?

 

https://www.thirdgen.org/techbb2/sho...threadid=88023

 

I think we need a sticky on the LT1 cam swap with some links. Seems all the info keeps slipping through the cracks.

Id write it up but I dont even remember all the things I did to install my cam. Maybe it was because I was in a rush and did it all in an afternoon. Ill say one thing, dumbest thing I could have done was to swap out that 929 cam or whatever it had for the edelbrock cam. Car ran like puke for the longest time...