cam swap info

[aaron1976]

camshaft installed

I took the intake manifold and valley pan off again this morning and flipped the dog bones over. No damage at all.

Still have valve noise. I can tell one cylinder is not firing properly as there is a very slight miss and I am getting white smoke at idle. When it is cold it starts right up but runs rough for a while and smokes a lot.

I think that I have sticky lifters or valves do to the increase in lift. I am wondering if the lifters are not pumping up properly or the valves are just sticking.

I can hear valve noise outside the truck and also in the exhaust.

What you do guys think? New lifters and have the heads rebuilt? If I go that far I should just rebuild the whole engine.

Kind of sick of sitting in the engine compartment. I was in there for 2 and a half days. Now I just want it to run nice but I should have know better then to mess with an old worn engine in the first place. Love the truck so I guess I will go for a rebuild in the very near future.

 

[david85]

If I understand how this works, the hydraulic lifters make up for the difference in camshaft size/diamter, but could it be that older lifers are already worn for the original camshaft and don't like running in the new zone depending on how bad the wear is?

 

[aaron1976]

that's kind of what I was thinking. Maybe that the lifters liked where they were and were worn to that pattern.

 

[88beast]

if so ill have the same issue with 450k on the clock
but usually not the roller lifters are not really a wear part for the cam but for the pushrods
and this is a reground cam so it uses a stock cam it just changes where the lift comes in and goes out and it stays longer too so that means no more lift than stock (russ will correct me if wrong) its just where lift is
first are you positive you didnt swap any lifters or pushrods?
are you sure you dont have a bent pushrod?
id pull again and check for bent pushrods and stuck lifters
then make sure all lines were clear of air before startup

 

[icanfixall]

These motors are supposed to be rotated till the timing mark is past tdc before you tighten any rockers down. The balancer mark needs to be at the 11 o clock position. That way all the pistons are below tdc so no piston to valve contact can happen. Hopefully you didn't bend a valve or pushrod. Also these pushrods have a top and bottom. The tops have a hardened ball and that must meet the rocker. If it is installed down to the lifter you will wear them out quickly. The tops usually are a copper color or sometimes there is a dimple punched into the tube just below the ball....

 

[88beast]

ican fix all elorabrate on this past tdc thing you said please

 

[DeepRoots]

These motors are supposed to be rotated till the timing mark is past tdc before you tighten any rockers down. The balancer mark needs to be at the 11 o clock position. That way all the pistons are below tdc so no piston to valve contact can happen. Hopefully you didn't bend a valve or pushrod.

There ya go!
Drew

 

[david85]

I'm not following. Unless the timing gear for the camshaft is not correctly aligned to the crank shaft, how can a collision between valve and piston ever occur?

 

[icanfixall]

When you take the rockers off that allows the lifters to change. Sometimes they fill with oil. Then you crank down on the rocker bolt and the oil can't bleed out of the lifter fast enough. Piston and valve contact each other. This can't happen if you turn the crank till the timing mark is at the 11 o clock position.. A dry installed set of lifters wont alow this to happen.

 

[aaron1976]

I had been reading up on all the posts so I did do the 11 o clock thing. I too don't see how the valves could contact the pistons. If your cam is clocked correctly you should not be able to contact the pistons. Allthough if the the lifter changes height I guess it could since the tolerances are so tight.

I am sure I did not swap any lifters around. When I pulled them I put them in the valley of the engine right next to the lifter bore and very carefully so I did not rotate them by 180 degrees or anything like that. The push rods came out two at a time and went on a tray in front of the truck in order and oriented so that the copper end was up. The rocker arms were unbolted, moved down just a tad and then bolted right back to their stands.

I will pull the valve covers again after I get the engine to 11 o clock and pull the pushrods and see if I have any bent push rods. I would really think that they are the weak link so if something did make contact the push rods would be the first to be damaged. at least in assembly. If the engine were running I could see a bent valve and push rod.

Also, I rotated the engine 2 full revalutions manually and slowly to make sure I didn't feel anything after the push rods were installed.

I will let you all know what I find when I pull the push rods. Do you think the engine is wore enough to let the piston hit the valves just a touch, with the higher lift?

I did notice more torque when I was pulling a steep hill going to the town garbage center yesterday. It was in 3rd and about 1400 rpms and it seemed to pull up the grade easier, just seemed to respond better if I wanted to speed up a bit and didn't loose rpm as easily.

 

[88beast]

again you cannot have higher lift in a reground cam its changed lift but i dont think touching is too much of an issue
mainly the pushrods are my concern

 

[icanfixall]

You seem to feel this cam from Russ has a higher lift... It does not. I measured them side by side. The Russ cam is not as tall in lift as the new oem cam I have. The Russ cam has a much wider top of the lobe than the oem has. It appears to stay open longer. Because I value my friendship with Russ this is as far as I will post here. I have always shared all my information but this is not mine to share. Buy one... Install it and degree it. Then you can compare it to the oem but keep it quiete... There are creepers about called jasnap or whatever the guys handle was... Thats a fool we didn't need around here....

 

[88beast]

icanfixall i agree rus is a good guy and done need to go through wat melwas put through

 

[Clydesdale]

reading the last 4 posts, and going completely off topic here, is the board much slower today, than it was 6 months ago, and if so, what happened?

 

[aaron1976]

Russ is a good guy and I hope nothing is said or has caused him any ill. Hope all is well with him.

Good info to know about the cam as well.