I have no idea about what it takes to swap a cam becides that you have to pull the engine and so on...My troubles are the rest that comes along with it. What do you need to add with a cam, if anthing else (heads, lifters, chip, or anything else along that line)? What would be the best set up for my car with the mods I have? (look at sig) plus in the future I may want to swap out the manifold and runners for better. How much money am I looking at spending for this...and if I need to take it to a shop to do, how much sould I expect to pay to have a shop do it? I am clueless, someone who knows anything about this please help me....at least let me know what cam I should get with my current setup, or what else i could do for more torque that I lost when I installed the headers.
Thanks,
-Joe-

 

You don't have to pull the motor, but the swap would be easier if it were out of the car.

What you need to pull to get it out is, the intake manifold, Distributor (mark where the rotor is pointing) anything on the front of the motor that might get in the way (my 86 doesn't have A/C or smog so those weren't a prob for me).

Pull the water pump, crank pulley, harmonic balancer, timing cover, timing chain, radiator, valve covers, loosen the rocker arms, pull the push rods & lifters out (note where they came out of).

You will need enough oil for 2 oil changes 2 oil filters and some coolant to replenish whatever you lose when pulling apart the motor.

Also get gaskets for the waterpump, timing chain cover, maybe the valve covers, TPI gasket set, Intake manifold gasket, thermostat gasket, and new thermostat since they are cheap.

It is a very easy swap, just takes a lot of time removing a bunch of parts.

 

Also you'll need a special tool to pull the crank pulley. I just rented one for about $15.
Be sure to set aside plenty of time, and have another vehicle to drive.

 

I'm thinking about swapping my cam also. What about cam bearings? Are they accessible? How do you get them out and in? Any special tools?

 

Cam bearings require a special tool to remove/install. Also requires removing the soft plug at the back of the cam. NOT something you wanna do with the engine in the car......

 

So how is it that people do cam swaps with the engine in the car all the time? They just leave the old bearings? That doesn't seem very smart to me.

 

I left the old bearings in the car. Didn't seem like I needed to change them. I only have 150K miles on the car.

 

the installer unit is as long as the block.

yeah - what he said
ploegi



They are normally only replaced when the block is bored-honed and the freeze plugs replaced.
since they turn at 1/2 crank speed they don't wear as bad.

 

You shouldn't need to replace the cam bearing unless they have excessive wear (lots of miles) or you have been reving the engine way to high. Just remember to bend the radiator support bar to pull the other cam out. If you car was carbureted, which its not, you would have had to also pull the fuel pump. It is a good idea to just get new lifters and pushrods when replacing the cam. This is good preventive maintenance. I would not recommend using the old ones. Make sure you lube the cam really well and when your finished getting the car back together jack the rear up and run the car at 2000 rpm to break in the cam. This is just an easy when to make sure the cam and lifters break in properly. Only takes 20 minutes of your time. When putting the pushrods back in tighten the rocker arms until it is tough to spin the pushrods. Do this with every one. Then start the engine up with valve covers off and tighten all the rocker arms until they stop chattering. Then give them all another 1/4 turn and put the valve covers on. Don't over tighten or you could end up wear some cam lobes really bad. Oil will be squirting everywhere so don't screw around. It shouldn't be much. Then just put the Valve covers back on, adjust the idle to 2000. and let it run for about 20 min ( jacked up of course).

 

Theres usaully no reason to replace the cam bearings. My favorite 2 saying "If it aint broke dont fix it" "if it aint broke your not trying hard enough"

If the cam bearings are not scrached or pitted than dont replace them. If they are scraced and pitted then you need to pull the engine to replace them. Thats why you should always be very carefull when doing a cam swap, so you donot have to replace the bearings.
SSC

 

What do you think would be the best cam set up for me to get and where would the cheapest place to get it...

 

I'm in the process of tearing down my engine.....well, removing the heads anyways. I've got the intake of and I can't see the cam!!....there's little peek holes and it looks like the lifters are removed fairly easily,but why can't I see the whole cam like other chevy 350s I've seen? maybe because I have a 305 H.O. block?? the whole engine has 11k miles on it,I'm only tearing it down because it was badly overheated and may have blown headgaskets,cracks or warpage...(hey I didn't do it,it was stolen!!) it had a full crankcase of oil and was running befor I took it apart,the cooling system was bone dry when I recovered it! hopefully the bottom end is still usefull even if the heads are bad,I will drop in the badest cam that an L69 will deal with and terrorize the local hot rodders and ricers with my low budjet azz!

I've never done much internal work before...but I'm not scared,I've got other means of transportation!

 

The cam is inside the block. You access from behind the timing chain cover. It slides out the front of the block.

 

I know that,but I just thought it was cheesy that I can't see the whole cam with the intake removed, like on the older SBCs I've seen. the only way to view the lobes would be to remove the lifters and look in with a flash light!

 

Things haven't changed that much since '55...you must have been looking at an engine other than a SBC...or someone had a hek of a hole in the lifter valley