I am about to do this and I am coming up with ideas on how to do it best.

1- remove the radiator and the condensor.
2- remove the water pump.
3- loosen the bolts on the oil pan
and so on.

if anyone has some good ideas on how to make this job a little more liveable I am all ears.

 

Probably simple, but I like to roll the motor to TDC and mark all the spark plug wires before I take them off the cap, remove the dist cap and verify rotor is pointing to # 1 then mark the dist position on intake & mark rotor position in reference to dist hsg. This makes reassembly easy, no guessing which wire goes where and the timing will be close enough to fire the motor. Also remeber to prime the motor, also install the dizzy before adjusting the valves so you don't mess up your marks by turning the motor over & it will help to prime the motor.

 

that is a good idea, setting the dissy to number on before taking it apart.

I am going to put some under the header wire on. I appreciate the help keep it comming. I am starting to feel better about this already.

 

You donot need to remover the condenser just the radiator.

 

really! that would help alot since my lines to my condenser are frozen and I could see this costing me a ton of dough,

have you done a cam in the engine bay IROCZ4BD3

 

see sig... actually kat on this board and I did the retro-fit & cam swap and the engine was not removed

 

Yeah you can leave the condenser and A/C lines hooked up, just have someone pull the condenser up out of the way while you pull the cam out and install the new one. Similarly before that you can unbolt the A/C compressor and wire it over out of the way or something. Assuming you still have your operational A/C that keeps you from having to drain the refrigerant.

 

yes u can swing the AC out of the way :-)

Pull it if u can, its easiest this way and safer.

I've done them both ways, seems like u have the general idea down, so all I will say is to be careful.

When taking the old cam out and the new cam in do not force anything or try and drag the cam across the bearings. Shoot for a stright shot. I have seen peopl gouge cam bearings and literally almost knock them out of their bores.

Just go slow and be careful.

later
Jeremy

 

I would do as 87tpi7749 suggested and set the engine to #1 firing before tear down.

Then once the cam is in and the dots are lined up facing each other, rotate the engine one turn. This is #1 firing position with BOTH dots facing UPWARD (12 o'clock).

Now you can place the distributor in and line it back up on #1. And it'll fire right up

RBob.

 

thank you for all the input guys.

If it is going to be eaiser to take the condenser out to the way I will do it because I want all the room I can get so I do not hurt the cam bearings

Thanks again

 

I'm going along with Jamon8 here. I bought new runners, new intake, and ported Plunum for my Trans am. (5.0L TPI) Some people were saying if your that far....why not change the cam out too. What all did you do with changing the cam? Did you have yo buy new push rods? What about new springs for the heads? It it as easy and pulling the old out and putting in a new one? Or what all did you guys do to get ready for a new cam. I plan on building a 350 in a couple years, but I figured Id make me 305 as fun as possiable.
Thanks

 

yeah you guys could have told me that I needed to take out the bracket and the two cross bars. either you guys forgot or you never did this before but none the less I wish someone would have let me in.

 

Not sure what bracket your talking about but we didn't remove the cross bars

 

Bracket for the hood latch perhaps? I dont know, I find it easier to pull the motor and have more fun with it that way.

 

Yes, you do have to unbolt the cross braces. Unfortunately, the "x" where they cross lies directly in front of your cam when you pull it out. If they were only 1" farther back, you wouldn't have to.