CRatcliff
Member
- Joined
- Nov 21, 2016
- Location
- Seattle, Washington
After breaking in a new cam, I learned a ton of things from making a ton of mistakes. Don't make my mistakes. Here are the steps I learned to follow:
Note, this assumes that you have already taken the cam out of your car, and to do this you removed the distributor gear and the fuel pump, as well as the timing gear. Replace the timing gear. Aluminum is great for durability and not being insanely loud.
This is also my list that I'm intending to follow when I reinstall my cam (thank goodness it wasn't actually wiped, but I broke a ton of these rules, and ended up spending a ton of time fixing it). Let me know if there's something wrong, or something I'm missing.
Note, this assumes that you have already taken the cam out of your car, and to do this you removed the distributor gear and the fuel pump, as well as the timing gear. Replace the timing gear. Aluminum is great for durability and not being insanely loud.
- Apply Assembly Lube to each of the cam lobes. I also applied it to the bearings, but have no clue if this was a good move or bad.
- Slide cam in, being careful not to whack the bearings. This should be easy to do and take no forcing, just rotate as you slide in.
- Install flange. Paint the TDC timing mark on the crank and cam gears, and heat timing gear with heat gun. Align painted marks and slide over end of cam. You should be able to get it far enough to start threading the cam nut, and use this to torque it down
- Install timing cover, fan, fan belt. Make sure the oil pan gasket is in good condition. If it's not Would love advice on what others have done in this case.
- Install fuel pump and distributor. Distributor gear should be aligned as so: (note: many people, including me, have had distributors that are 180 degree off. Not sure why, but it should be pretty obvious - particularly if you did the diligent thing and aligned the engine to TDC and marked the distributor when disassembling!)
- Install lifters. Dip them in a cup of oil, dab moly paste on the bottom, slide them in. If they don't slide in super easily, clean out the hole with Scotch Brite. Hell, probably a good idea to just clean the hole out no matter what.
- Install radiator, head, intake and exhaust. Torque down head to 58.
- Fill head with coolant with the temp sender and thermostat removed. Once coolant is up to top, reinstall sender and thermostat. Fill coolant via radiator cap. Finally, fill coolant from overflow, and burp with the hose going from the thermostat to the radiator.
- Install rods, reinstall rocker, adjust valves. Install valve cover.
- Fill with oil, and then add ZDDP
- Install hoses from PCV valves, brake boost, etc. (or just cap them off for now, so you don't mess with that during break in).
- Prime fuel - get fuel in those carbs somehow.
- Start engine and run somewhere between 2,000 and 2,500 rpm, fluctuating for 15 - 20 minutes.
This is also my list that I'm intending to follow when I reinstall my cam (thank goodness it wasn't actually wiped, but I broke a ton of these rules, and ended up spending a ton of time fixing it). Let me know if there's something wrong, or something I'm missing.
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