How hard to remove cams
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stephen newberg
SHO Member
Removing the cams is rather time consuming, but not intrisically harder than in any other modern DOHC type engine. However, almost everyone has the cam sprockets welded in the engine, rather than removing them and sending them off somewhere. It is much faster, produces results that are just as good in any practical sense, and is much cheaper. And I do mean -much- cheaper. Before removing the cams, you might check around about welding.
pax, smn
pax, smn
Ian Macoomb
SHO Member
Like Stephen said, it's much easier to have them welded.
It takes something like 20 hours of labor just to remove the cams. That and you never know how long it will take to get them back. SLO Shop has been known to take their sweet *** time shipping things to customers.
It takes something like 20 hours of labor just to remove the cams. That and you never know how long it will take to get them back. SLO Shop has been known to take their sweet *** time shipping things to customers.
venom
Rowboat Design
I am not doing my first tear down but I can probably have the cams in and out of the car in a little over 15 hours (motor still in the car). For someone who's never been in one of these motors I would expect time to pull all 4 cams and retime the engine (it is an interference motor) and put it back together would be in the ballpark of 20 to 25 hours in the car. Do yourself this favor, go look at the timing cover and visualize pulling that off with the motor in the car... NO FUN let me tell you!!! Then you have to pull the cams and send them to SHO Slop (hope you ge them back this year) and reinstall them.
Or:
Leave that timining cover on and leave the timing chain untouched and have someone weld the cams in the car (around 8 to 10 hours of labor this way). There are several places that will do this all for you for about the same price you'd pay SHO slop to pin your cams alone. If you are the type that refuses to let others wrench on your car you can find a qualified welder that you could tear your car down, and tow or dolly it to them and then have them put the welds down. Then take her home and button everything back up. Damage could be done to the shaft if the weld isn't done correctly (ie: too much heat or a bit of weld on one of the cam lobes) so pick your poison.... There are advantages to having people that have done the full service do it for you and the prices aren't too bad as there is a good deal of work involved.
And I didn't even get into the debate of which is a better fix: a pin that might possibly shear or a weld that is fused to both pieces, but I don't want to derail this thread either so forget I mentioned it.
I will say this, I did my own teardown and had a local welder welds my wife's car (cam's in place) with no issues. My other car had a trashed head when I bought it so I got a used head with welded cams in it from Kirk Doucette, the other head I took the cams to my local welder (same guy) and had them welded there. See even when I already had the cams out of the motor I didn't send them to SHO slop... If you are going to pursue the locla welder thing, PM me for more info.
Or:
Leave that timining cover on and leave the timing chain untouched and have someone weld the cams in the car (around 8 to 10 hours of labor this way). There are several places that will do this all for you for about the same price you'd pay SHO slop to pin your cams alone. If you are the type that refuses to let others wrench on your car you can find a qualified welder that you could tear your car down, and tow or dolly it to them and then have them put the welds down. Then take her home and button everything back up. Damage could be done to the shaft if the weld isn't done correctly (ie: too much heat or a bit of weld on one of the cam lobes) so pick your poison.... There are advantages to having people that have done the full service do it for you and the prices aren't too bad as there is a good deal of work involved.
And I didn't even get into the debate of which is a better fix: a pin that might possibly shear or a weld that is fused to both pieces, but I don't want to derail this thread either so forget I mentioned it.
I will say this, I did my own teardown and had a local welder welds my wife's car (cam's in place) with no issues. My other car had a trashed head when I bought it so I got a used head with welded cams in it from Kirk Doucette, the other head I took the cams to my local welder (same guy) and had them welded there. See even when I already had the cams out of the motor I didn't send them to SHO slop... If you are going to pursue the locla welder thing, PM me for more info.
Yea, ive been doing a bit more reading, it seems welding is the way to go (if I indeed got the car). Its a mint 96 with 70k miles for ~4000$, the 70k kind of scares me though, as Id hate to get a car that was irrepairably damaged.
venom
Rowboat Design
As long as it runs okay now without the infamous noise, get her welded after acquision and you should be all set. There is someone out there in north CA that is welding, or there is John Jones in phoenix. Or find your own like I mentioned above... Check v8sho.com for welders that do the service.
Hope to see you at the convention.
Mr Anonymous
Tire Wall
Wow! eek! Kirk can have a car welded and ready to drive home in just a hair over 3 hours from the time it drives into the bay.
But yeah, unless you don't want to drive your car for weeks, maybe months, welding is the way to go.
venom
Rowboat Design
Sure I can do it in about 5 hours but the first time was 8 hours as you keep bolts and such seperate. Once you've done a few all the bolts can go in a pile and you know what ones go where. Makes things a whole lot faster.
SHO Squall
New Member
Kirk's also done over 250 of them. IIRC, he made some sort of mention last summer or fall about doing his next car (non-customer's) blindfolded. He can pile all of your bolts and everything else up, and put them all where they belong. Also can identify, toss, and replace anything that's out of sorts (wrong bolt, wrong nut, etc) without batting an eye.
The first time I removed my front bumper, it took me 30-45 minutes, and many glances at the instructions. 3 or 4 times later, it's down to 15-20 minutes, no instructions. It's all a matter of repetition.
spragers
New Member
...how many times do you need to remove your front bumper?
SHO Squall
New Member
So far, 3 times, I believe. It'll be coming off again this weekend if I don't go out of town. I put a set of aftermarket fogs in the grille opening where the Furd emblem used to be, and I had to troubleshoot the wiring a couple of times. Now one of the brackets has come loose, so I need to get in there again to work on it.
In the end, the time it takes to R/R the bumper is worth it in the reduced hassle and extra work-space available to work on the lights. I don't have huge beast-hands, but there is VERY little room to work in that opening with the bumper in place.
In the end, the time it takes to R/R the bumper is worth it in the reduced hassle and extra work-space available to work on the lights. I don't have huge beast-hands, but there is VERY little room to work in that opening with the bumper in place.
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