any tips for first time attempt?

 

Yeah,
I just did my first one 3 days ago... where are you at with taking apart your engine... (that's what takes the most time) You need to remove the intake manifold, take of the vavle covers so you can remove the rocker arms. Remove the pushrods and lifters... then comes the fun part, you need to remove the water pump, crank pulley, and the harmonic balancer... once you have done that you need to take off the timing cover (all this AFTER draining water and oil)... once you are looking at the front of your engine and seeing the timing chain, you only have about 10 minutes of work left ahead of you... mark the relationship of the timing chain to the cam AND crank gear, I found out that white-out works really well, the reason that you do this is because the cam will have 3 screw holes on the front AND a small button to ensure correct location of the direction of the cam (ALL chevy cams have the same pattern) so if you install the NEW cam in the same position as the old one ( which is EASY if you mark it ) that's all there is too it... If you have ANY questions ... please don't hesitate to ask...
Good luck

 

great step by step, thank you......no need to remove the rad?

 

You might need to remove the fans or fan but the radiator should be just out of the way. It might be in the way if you are using an aftermarket, thicker core rad.

About the only thing I would do that you may have already done is pull the #1 cylinder to TDC before any disassembly. No real good reason, but I am just **** about it being the orientation cylinder and all. THis should also align the dots on the timing chain to aid you later on...

Like he said, if you have any questions post em. Cam swaps are pretty straight forward but do require some careful attention. Take your time...Have fun

 

Does'nt valve lash need to be adjusted? I have not done this before myself, but I have been reading up on it so I could get that little peanut cam out of my L03. Alot of people talk about adjusting the Valve lash after a cam swap. How necessary is this?

Andy

 

It's very necessary. You don't need to remove the rockers you just need to loosen them up enough to remove the pushrods. The fact that you loosed the rockers requires you to re-set the lash.

 

you do need to remove the radiator, AND if you have AC, move the evaporator out of the way. when we did this on a GTA, we also had to unbolt the support peice under the nose, to allow enough room for us to put the cam in.

 

unless you can cut the old cam in half withouth nicking a bearing the radiator has to come out.
I had to bend the front support bars a little as well.

 

you sure do. on both parts. also when you put the new cam on you need to line up the two "dots" on the timeing gears when you do that the #1 cyl will be at TDC and then you have get the vavle lash after you put the lifter back in setting the vavle lash is not really a pain in the *** it jst has to do with how you like to do it.... do a search for "Vavle Lash" or "0 Lash" and you can find out how to set the lash

 

all good points... I'd also check into replacing ALL lifters, and if you got the money, switch to roller rockers... they make more of a difference than most people will EVER realize.. I just did my cam... I was gonna' re-use all the lifters, but I smelled one, and once I got the whiff of burnt engine oil, I bought all new ones, and then went with roller rockers also... once I set the valve lash, my car has NEVER run better, it was SO quiet, perfect idle, bad @ss power, ... (which took like 10 minutes... don't worry, once you get started it'll go SO SO easy)...
the valve train IS the heart of any engine...

 

again.... if your putting in a new cam you really NEED new lifters cuz the lifters are just like that rings in the cly wall kinda... they both make marks that they keep rideing in and if you change then you can get into some problems down the road. you can get stock replace lifters for about $100 for all 16 and roller rockers are a very good idea. they help free up HP in the vavle train and if you get the alumi. they help cool down the oil but they are around $200 for 16 from Jegs and sumit with the aftermarket you mau have to get tall vavle covers i think

 

If you decide on roller rockers, forget the aluminum ones and get the Comp Cams Pro Magnum rollers. They will last longer than you!!!

 

true ture

 

i just ordered a cam kit from comp cams
212 218 449 456 112lsa , also comes with lifters, springs, timing chain, rocker arms, and some othger stuff,
i got a stock 86 305 tpi trans am with 24, 000 miles on it ,
would s/r tourquers be worth spending the money on with my set up , i got 3.42 gears in the car