Anybody have an easy way to pull the front cam bearing with the engine still in the car??

 

are you planning on only doing the one cam bearing? its probably a good idea to do them all if youre going to do one. maybe if you pulled the radiator and all that stuff out of the way on the front, you may have enough room, not sure. i havent played w/ a cam bearing removal/reinstall tool in a while to remember if theres enough room up there for it or not. but i would definetly advise on doing all of them, not just one, since the cam can be pretty sensitive.

 

He's already got the cam out. I want to hang on to this since I'm doing a cam swap soon...

 

man are u in luck,i just replaced a set of cam bearings in a 3.1 today.
heres the deal cam bearings #1 & 4 from the front of the block are larger in diam then #'s2 &3.(this lets the 2&3 bearings slide threw the number 1&4 bores) now usually with the motor on a stand u would remove the rear cam seal, and insert the cam removal tool threw the back of the block and drive the #1 cam bearing out,then u would drive #2 out the front of the block.

to get numbers 3&4 u would go threw the front of the block.driving the #4(rearmost cam bearing out the back of the block),followed by the # 3 bearing out the back

to reinstall u would go in the oposite order.


if u wanted to change just the #1 bearing u could drive the bearing into the block.then u would have to stick ur fingers into the block and pull the cam bearing back to the first cam bearing slot with the cam bearing horizontal to the ground. this way u could wedge a screw driver between the bearing and the block to pry it threw the bore.
^^ doing this is not recomended cause u can score the bore were the cam bearing goes into. which inturn could create a high spot on the new bearing when u reinstall it.

why do u want to change the front cam bearing anyways?
if that one is bad then chances are they are all bad.
even droping the trans out of the car i dont think u could get the cam bearing tool into the block from the backside.
and would prolly be less work to just pull the motor and do it the right way anyway

 

This is a low budget temporary fix for the flat cam.. The middle bearings look good, can't see much of the rear one, the front one has some scoring.. All the cam bearing surfaces look good though on the cam even though two lobes are shot.. Hence, change the front one for now without pulling the engine and put in a new cam and lifters......

 

daves12secV6 can i ask what tool is needed to change cam bearings on a 3.1 chevy v 6

 

Something like this would be what you need.