Camshaft install tips and tricks
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'''15. Failure to prime the oiling system prior to firing the motor.''' | '''15. Failure to prime the oiling system prior to firing the motor.''' | ||
| − | Prime until you get oil out of the top of each and every pushrod. Observe the oil pressure gauge to be certain that pressure is registering. Priming will aid lubing the valve train at initial startup. It's the last area of the motor to get lubed on dry start. You can make a tool by disassembling an old distributor and removing the gear, or just grinding off the gear teeth so that the teeth don't engage the cam teeth. Or, you can spring for 20 bucks and get a very nice priming tool that will be a nice addition to your tool chest. In either case, you will NOT get oil to the passenger side rockers unless you use either the distributor or the tool to block off the oil galley under where the distributor bolts down. Here is an example of a tool for use with a Chevrolet engine: [http://paceperformance.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=25140 Proform oil pump prime tool]. | + | Prime until you get oil out of the top of each and every pushrod. Observe the oil pressure gauge to be certain that pressure is registering. Priming will aid lubing the valve train at initial startup. It's the last area of the motor to get lubed on dry start. You can make a tool by disassembling an old distributor and removing the gear, or just grinding off the gear teeth so that the teeth don't engage the cam teeth. Or, you can spring for 20 bucks and get a very nice priming tool that will be a nice addition to your tool chest. In either case, you will NOT get oil to the passenger side rockers of a Chevrolet-designed V-8 unless you use either the distributor or the tool to block off the oil galley under where the distributor bolts down. Here is an example of a tool for use with a Chevrolet engine: [http://paceperformance.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=25140 Proform oil pump prime tool].That sort of tool is not needed on, for example, Oldsmobile- or Pontiac-designed V-8s. |
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| + | ('''Disagreement with #15:''') Priming is NOT intended to LUBRICATE anything, every moving part was lubricated with oil, grease--something--when the engine was assembled. Too much priming merely washes away this assembly lube. Priming the oil system is a process to REMOVE AIR from the MAIN cavities in the oiling system--the oil pump, the oil filter, and some of the oil galleries (the oil galleries will begin to drain the oil as soon as the priming stops--but the oil pump and filter are likely to remain full.) Priming is "done" when you see oil pressure on the gauge, plus about ten or fifteen seconds additional. Engines that use a submerged oil pump--Chevrolet big- and small- blocks, Oldsmobile V-8, Pontiac V-8, etc., priming is usually done in ''less than one minute''. Engines with non-submerged oil pumps (Buick V-8, for example) may take considerably longer due to the difficulty in pulling oil through the long pickup tube to the remote-mounted pump. However, once you show pressure on the gauge, another ten or fifteen seconds is entirely sufficient. There is NO need to prime until the oil squirts over the fender; and in fact some engines won't show oil at the rocker arms until it's running. | ||
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| + | Engines with an oil pump that is not driven by the distributor--GM LS-series, Vega 2.3L, some later Buick V-6, etc. can be primed by injecting pressurized oil into the oil pressure gauge port. A hand-pumped garden-sprayer-type pressure vessel will work if you can adapt the end of the hose to appropriately-threaded fittings to suit the port in the block. Put the engine oil into the pressure vessel, pump the handle, squirt all the oil into the oil sender port. The pressure used doesn't really matter--if the oil squeezes into the engine at two or five psi...that's just fine. | ||
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Used lifters should only be used on the very same cam, in the very same block, and in the very same positions they were removed from. Chances that the lifter bores will be machined on the very same angles on a different block as the block the lifters came out of are about equal to you hitting the lottery. If you purchase a used flat tappet cam from a swap meet or yard sale, plan on using it for a doorstop. | Used lifters should only be used on the very same cam, in the very same block, and in the very same positions they were removed from. Chances that the lifter bores will be machined on the very same angles on a different block as the block the lifters came out of are about equal to you hitting the lottery. If you purchase a used flat tappet cam from a swap meet or yard sale, plan on using it for a doorstop. | ||
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| + | '''17. Actual installation of the camshaft into the block.''' | ||
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| + | On a complete engine assembly, it is often helpful to install the camshaft BEFORE the crankshaft; in many cases the cam would be the first part to be installed by the assembler after "final cleaning" of the block. (The cam bearings are likely to be installed by the machine shop.) If this is the case, it is very helpful to--if possible--set the block on the floor bellhousing-side DOWN, so the block is vertical. The camshaft then can be lowered into the block straight down, and there's minimal effort needed to assure that the cam lobes and cam journals DO NOT nick the bearings. If the cam MUST be installed horizontally, it is almost mandatory to use a "handle" on the front of the cam, and to take particular care that the cam doesn't bang into, or scrape across the bearings. Whether vertical or horizontal, if the crankshaft isn't in the way, it's easy to guide the cam through the bearings with one hand while supporting the front end of the cam with the other. | ||
==Miscellaneous== | ==Miscellaneous== | ||
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