1999 VS SIII S 5.0 Ute

[whiskeytango]

It's ok mate, when I did my first cam I left the 200,000km old chain in, it went fine, I only did it the second time as I had a longer window to get it done. I wouldn't stress over it too much unless it's got excessive slop.

Cheers mate that's good to hear. If it's really bad I'll wait impatiently and get one. I did get a cam dial for free so would make sense.

We'll see if I get up to removing the timing case tomorrow. I think I need to take the whole front bar off and the a/c unit as well. I actually don't know what to do there. Just vent that **** to atmosphere lol?

 

[someguy360]

I was able to leave my front bar on but had to take the condensor out. Whether you should vent to the atmosphere or not I'll leave that one with you *cough*

The other thing to consider as well is making sure your pushrod legnth is right afterwards too, When I did the 268 it was close enough to stock lift the factory rods worked fine however I couldn't enough preload with the 276 and needed longer pushrods.

Being hydraulic lifters, preload is very important when your putting the rockers etc on, too much and you'll break the lifters, damage the cam and possibly the rockers, not enough and you won't have any power, it will be noisy and will still slowly damage stuff. Don't believe the workshop manuals that say you can just tighten the rockers to a certain nm and send it, it doesn't work that way with every engine you must set pre-load correctly.

Lots of good youtube videos (particularly the one from COME as it's being done on a 304) on how to set hydraulic lifter preload as theres a bit involved in it (like making sure each cam lobe is on the base circle before setting preload as you can't set preload when the lifter is on the rock of the lobe).

I know you bought crow pushrods just make sure that they get you the right pre-load before starting it.

 

[whiskeytango]

I was able to leave my front bar on but had to take the condensor out. Whether you should vent to the atmosphere or not I'll leave that one with you *cough*

The other thing to consider as well is making sure your pushrod legnth is right afterwards too, When I did the 268 it was close enough to stock lift the factory rods worked fine however I couldn't enough preload with the 276 and needed longer pushrods and also 30 thou shims under the rockers to lift the pedestals up a bit.

Being hydraulic lifters, preload is very important when your putting the rockers etc on, too much and you'll break the lifters, damage the cam and possibly the rockers, not enough and you won't have any power, it will be noisy and will still slowly damage stuff. Don't believe the workshop manuals that say you can just tighten the rockers to a certain nm and send it, it doesn't work that way.

Lots of good youtube videos on how to set hydraulic lifter preload as theres a bit involved in it (like making sure each cam lobe is on the base circle before setting preload etc).

I know you bought crow pushrods just make sure that they get you the right pre-load before starting it.

Haha yeah hopefully that's all I need to take out. I can get it regassed at work for a box of beer so if a pipe accidentally pops off then bugger.

I'm not 100% on how its done and how to measure all that stuff so thought I'd wait till I'm at that stage, then spend half the day watching youtube so I can actually see what's happening and compare. That's pretty much the main thing I've been worried about doing. The rods are the ones matched to the cam and springs but yeah I'll figure it out if its wrong.

The rockers also did come with shims if needed.

 

[someguy360]

Sounds like your pretty well set then, watch the videos rather than reading guides, it makes much more sense to see it in practice.

 

[whiskeytango]

Sounds like your pretty well set then, watch the videos rather than reading guides, it makes much more sense to see it in practice.

Cheers for all the advice.

Hopefully I wont be back in 2 days with a million questions regarding popping and rattling noises lol.

 

[Deuce]

Done an A/C pump on the wife's car, and the mobile A/C guy came around and cleared gas for free.
He charged me for the refill which is to be expected, but if you only need an empty and want to look after the ozone layer (so I get less burnt in summer) then it's only a phone call to your local.

 

[gtrboyy]

Do ol' skool stuff whilst you're there like close cam bolt hole,oiler tube & roll pins in pushrods...even av8 oil pump blueprinting.

Take your time & have fun.

Weirdly I'm more into messing with mildly modded or stock type 304's than big banger 355's...fuggin' heartbreakers

 

[whiskeytango]

Best to spend the $150 on the gear to save yourself $600 on a cam though Imo

You win. It was sloppy as **** so I'm ordering one as I'm really not in a rush to finish it.

Do ol' skool stuff whilst you're there like close cam bolt hole,oiler tube & roll pins in pushrods...even av8 oil pump blueprinting.

Take your time & have fun.

Weirdly I'm more into messing with mildly modded or stock type 304's than big banger 355's...fuggin' heartbreakers

I'm not even going to attempt any of that lol.

Done an A/C pump on the wife's car, and the mobile A/C guy came around and cleared gas for free.
He charged me for the refill which is to be expected, but if you only need an empty and want to look after the ozone layer (so I get less burnt in summer) then it's only a phone call to your local.

I was lucky enough to be able to drop it down on an angle just low enough to pull the cam out through the front without needing to remove the lines..

I have one other issue. When I undid the cam locator it dropped off in pieces. Ever seen that? Pretty random I thought.
Anyone know where I can find a new one easily? I've only found one joint on ebay that sells them.

 

[someguy360]

Never seen that one before, they are a chunky piece of metal.

You could probably weld it back up then grind it back smooth again but I'd try and get a replacement from a wrecker or marketplace etc for peace of mind.

 

[vc commodore]

I actually had a similar issue with a 6cyl blue motor cam plate....The top bolt hole was broken...

I found a replacement by ringing around a few engine reconditioners.....Being an old blue motor (red and blacks are identical with this plate), not many places stocked them.....But considering your engine is newer than my old blue, it should be that hard to find one locally....