304 Cam installation

[Pub247]

all dailing in does is move the powerband up and down the rev range so to speak if you were using it for a track car drag car is where it would benefit you the most .

A cam card will tell you what the lift should be at TDC it doesnt mean that is what its going to be. Doigs8 is right you set it to that lift @ TDC then you use the 50" duration to check that it is right.
If I was building a engine i'd dail it in if i was just doing a cam swap i'd set it dot to dot so to speak. You'll never never find true TDC without taking the heads off

 

[VrWagz1]

stocky, you wanna write up an awesome howto on installing and dialing in a cam.

 

[ari666]

i can donate some pics from my latest build (this weekend gone) if you wanna do a write up

(only phone quality tho)

 

[stocky]

stocky, you wanna write up an awesome howto on installing and dialing in a cam.

haha i could later on, but i didnt dial mine in. this thread has given me a lot of useful information. my car should be running tomorrow, so i will see how it all goes then. one thing worrying me though, the rockers. ive torqued them up properly, but i can still move the rocker itself a bit. the part with th bolt through it holding the rocker on doesnt move, but the rocker itself has a little sideways action. is this normal? im thinking i may need to remove one of the shims underneath the bolt.

 

[383 hatch]

Sideways movement or can you move it up and down when you push down on the pushrod end?

 

[stocky]

well i can push down on the pushrod a bit, and it moves that way, but i think some of them can swivel a bit from side to side

 

[383 hatch]

I wouldn't get too concerned about it at this stage, all the slack should go away once the lifters bleed up. Once you have got the engine running and all sorted, it wouldn't hurt to pop the rocker covers back off and have a look see in there and make sure all is good. If the lifters go quiet fairly quickly thats a pretty good indication that all is well....

 

[ari666]

I wouldn't get too concerned about it at this stage, all the slack should go away once the lifters bleed up. Once you have got the engine running and all sorted, it wouldn't hurt to pop the rocker covers back off and have a look see in there and make sure all is good. If the lifters go quiet fairly quickly thats a pretty good indication that all is well....

worded perfectly.

didnt you get some material taken off your heads? if anything they should be tighter than they were before. but yeah, once the lifters fill with oil you should be sweet.

on the crane cams installation guide it says that its better to break in the cam with your rockers a little on the loose side cos less chance of holding a valve open.

 

[stocky]

ah ok. well i ran the cam and everything in today. it all seemed to be fine. took the covers off and they seem a bit harder, and all are still torqued up at the right setting.

its nice and loud though. i will give more word on the performance once the clutch has worn in properly, and i have a good tune in it. the ECu didnt like my cam tune eprom, so i have been running it on a normal 304 tune. only notice a slight misfire from that around 2500rpm or so, so i will be driving it softly until i get the chip fixed

 

[greenfoam]

Sounds like a drive to the farm is in order. I'm still swapping valve springs in mine before it goes into the shed. I'm cleaning all the carbon/sludge off the rockers and such as I go, so it's slow going. I was going to leave the bucket off the springs so I have more lift clearence untill I decided they help stop the spring wobbling around alot so I left them on