...dont bother with the Proform cam installation tool for SBCs. Probably the same thing with the summit one as well. In principal, its a really nice design. Has mandrels and an interchangeable arbor that allows the cam bearing to be installed squarely each time. In practice, though, it sucks.

Whoever designed it had no concept of dimensioning/tolerancing. Basically, to size the driving mandrel, they just measured a cam bearing by itself. The end result is that its .004" too large (should be 1.869" and not 1.873"). Small enough to allow the cam bearing to be installed, but large enough to permanently lock the tool in the block once the cam bearing is in place. Fun stuff.

Spend the money and get a good one from snap-on, or have a machine shop do it.

 

Thanks for the heads up. How hard is it to install cam bearings yourself if you a good cam install tool such as the snap-on? Or how much would a shop charge to install a set of cam bearings?

 

I got a few installed after I resized the tool. Its not much harder than driving in bushings, but you do have to be careful to clean the block and square up/index the bearing properly before driving it in so it doesnt go in ****-eyed and the oil holes are in the right locations. You also have to make sure to check where the oil hole is with respect to the block oil hole/groove and stop when the bearing is at teh right location. Lastly, you have to put each bearing in the right location as they are not all interchangeable. It takes some time, but Id say that if you have the right tool, it shouldnt be too bad. The proform would also work if you had access to a lathe to resize it.

I dont know what shops typically charge, but Id imagine it wouldnt be over $100. If it was practical at this point, I would just cart my engine out to the shop to have it done.

 

This may burn a bit but my machinist quoted me $22 to just install cam bearings.

 

I really wish I couldve taken it to a machine shop, but its not practical. Dont have my truck anymore, engine is landlocked in a garage behind a bunch of crap, its still partially assembled, etc. If it was a bare block rather than an unexpected rebuild, I would dump it at a shop for plugs and bearings.

But, with a properly working tool, its not that hard to install them. I naively assumed that the tool would work right away without a bunch of modifications. But, it seems nothing can be assumed anymore.

 

I watched a friend use one of those Proform cam bearing tools, no problems. Luck of the draw I guess.

 

They didn't measure it wrong, they've just got absolutley no concept of quality control. I've seen three of those tools "in the field", one of them had the I.D. of the driver too small so it wouldn't fit on the rod without being bored out, one of them had one of the spools too large similar to what you describe, and one worked without modification.

The good news is that they're relatively cheap, compared to a universal set.

 

i have used mine tones of times it works great. i guess i just got a good one also.

 

So its basically that theyre just cheap, crappy tools. You think they would be able to quickly mic each one after they got done machining it.

For the ammount of aggrivation involved in having it trash an expensive bearing plus the time required to re-machine it to the right dimensions, it probably wouldve been worth it to buy the nice universal set.

 

Most of the shops in this area include cam bearing install with the block tanking.

If you just need cam bearings installed, it shouldn't take them more than 15-20 minutes if they know what they're doing.

 

I ordered the proform version, and it was as you described, too large to work (just barely!). I returned it to Summit, and got the summit version, virtually the same thing, but is just barely the right size. I have to "tap" the mandrels back out after installing a cam bearing, they are quite snug.
Luck of the draw, as their quality control is not bang on apparently.

 

I had no problems with this one from summit http://www.summitracing.com/parts/SUM-900130/

 

Thats basically the same as the proform one.

Once the mandrel was cut down to slightly larger than the size of a cam journal (.0005" larger) and refinished, it worked great, and the tool can be extracted w/o using force or scoring the bearings. Its a shame that they couldnt have done it that way themselves. Even if the tool cost $20-30 more, I would happily pay that for proper quality control.

 

Old thread, but shops quoted me $25 for one, and $28 for another shop to install cam bearings.