Camaroguy

iTrader: (2)

I'm thinking of doing my own cam swap, but kinda iffy if i should or not. The furthest ive gotten into my motor was checking the push rods, and once swapped out my radiator. Other than that i have no other experience. Do you guys think i could do it?

I take it i dont have to drain the oil out of the motor for just a cam swap? But i do have to drain the coolant? Once the cam is installed how many miles do i need to drive around before i need to chance out the oil?

About the special tools that hold up the lifters before i pull out the cam. Do i need the special rods or could i pick up something similar at home depot? Can i use a certain guage wire? Any advice?

Also, before im about to descompress the springs. Whats the best way to keep the lifters up? Top dead method? Is this easy to tell if the piston is at the TOP top most part?

Do i need gaskets or anything that i maybe missing?

I've read through the ls1how too but i still had a few questions that i wanted to make sure before i even consider any further. I want to do it but i dunno i have some doubts about doing this. because of the lifters dropping in.

I have 20k on my car right now. Do i need to swap out my timing chain or oil pump? The camaro is a 2002

foff667

iTrader: (2)

if youve gotten to the pushrods & taken out the radiator your 1/2 way done really...its a matter of taking off springs, water pump, pulley, front cover to swap out cam & springs...i say go for it. TDC if you dont have an air compressor or the hookups for it.

furiouSS99

iTrader: (-1)

For the lifters, use 5/16 rod. Smooth one end with a grinder, and bend the other end at 17.5 inches for a handle. I have tons of pix from my install if you want them.

Here are some pix of my lifter rods in the car and beside the stock cam:

Steve Bryant

iTrader: (1)

When you say smooth one end with a grinder, are you just saying to round over the end of the rod or do you mean that the side of the rod should be smoothed down flat or something. I used the 16 magnets, but I won't do that again.

Steve

furiouSS99

iTrader: (-1)

yeah, I meant to round one end, that way it won't potentially damage anything when you put it in.

Ferocity02

iTrader: (60)

Cam swaps arent hard, but time consuming and you will need another peoson to help you. Before I put in my cam, the hardest install I had done were the plug wires. The install took awhile to finished, but I took my sweet *** time. You will need some special tools, like a pulley puller, valve spring compressor, something to hold up the lifters (rods or pen magnets, and a torque wrench. Also need a ton of patience. The bolt for the oil pink-up tube took me about 2 hours to get started. That was the hardest part. I'd say do it yourself, it's fun

BriGuy

I'd say do it yourself too. Before I did a cam swap the most I had ever done to my car is changed the oil. And now within the past year I have done my cam, my wife helped me with her cam, and I have done about 5 others too.

Patience is the key. Print out the instructions that are on LS1Howto.com and just go over them a few times before you start and you should be good to go.

Camaroguy

iTrader: (2)

I've re read the instructions about 12 different times now, so im sure about how to do everything. My only problem is the lifters staying up. Also, once the lifters are held up via the top dead method by the pistons and i take off the spring and the lifter falls down to the piston then once i swap the spring and get ready to move onto the next springs and rotate the piston over the the next set of springs than wouldnt the lifters that were on the last piston fall down since they were rested on it and i just rotated the piston away from the top dead method? Or how does that work? This is still unclear to me

01_SuperSlow

iTrader: (7)

Lifters rest on the cam, not on the pistons. Once the cam is back in, the lifters aren't going anywhere. When you're changing your springs and rotating the crank for TDC, you should have the cam in there. It's pretty simple really. The part of the install that you'll be bitching at the most is putting that ******* oil pickup tube bolt back on. But then, that's only if you decide to do a timing chain and/or oil pump swap, if not, you don't have to mess with that.

Camaroguy

iTrader: (2)

So if the cams back in there then whats the point of doing the TDC ? since the lifters rest on the cam?

The way i picture this is if your doing TDC then your bringing the piston up close enough to keep the lifter from falling down any further then the top of the piston. A mental picture of this is the lifter resting ontop of the piston?? and if you move the piston down the lifter falls / rolls off the piston? is this correct, or am i completely wrong? I've never done this before, but im just trying to picture this

See with the air compressor i can picture it shooting the lifter up forcing it to stay there until you put the spring back under compression. But with the TDC i dont see how the lifter returns back to where it was before because you left it fall onto the piston?

Im not changing my oil pump or timing chain

zyal8r

The TDC method or air compressor method is used to hold up the valves not the lifters, the valves are held in with locks on the valve stem, when you take off the spring the valve will fall in the cylinder (not good) thats why you use TDC or the Air.

zyal8r

Also check for a diagram of an LS1 engine, it will show you where all the parts are, I think your confused about the parts, The cam pushes the lifter which pushes the pushrod up and opens the valve with the rocker arm the valve spring then colses the valve.

Ferocity02

iTrader: (60)

For the lifters, you can use pen magnets or the aluminum rods. The rods you can buy from somewhere for like $90, or make them yourself. I have heard that sometimes the lifters can slide past the rods. I used the pen magnets myself, and it worked flawlessly.

Camaroguy

iTrader: (2)

I see.. Yes i was confusing the the lifters. I thought that was what i needed to hold up when im taking the springs off. Turns out its the valves. So, then with the TDM what makes the valves go back up once your done changing the springs? i see it resting on the piston for the time its at its highest point and once you change the springs you go to move the piston how does the valve re attach itself?

Or does the valve not move at all when the piston is at the highest point. For that reason. So when you remove the spring the valve will not move down at all because the piston is right there to catch it? But if the piston wasnt it would fall down onto the piston? Correct?

01_SuperSlow

iTrader: (7)

Camaroguy:
When you have the piston up at TDC and you compress the valve to take off the spring, the valve will go down a little bit (I think about a 1/4 inch) and rest on the piston while you keep compressing the spring which goes down far enough for you to release and remove the valve locks.
When you're done taking the spring off, the valve seals, and maybe the springs seats, you do not turn the crank until you put the new springs in. That way when you turn the crank to move on the the next four springs, the new valve springs will hold the valves up making it impossible for them to drop.

Does this help?

Camaroguy

iTrader: (2)

Yes it helps. im only changing the springs nothing more.. Comp 918's so i wont need to change the valve seals. Could i reuse the retainers?

01_SuperSlow

iTrader: (7)

Yes, you can use the stock retainers with the 918's.

gonbad

If your car has some miles on it then it is cheap insurance to change the valve seals. I would only replace the guides if you are changing the valve seats. You don't need to do that with the 918's. Yes you can use the stock retainers.

01_SuperSlow

iTrader: (7)

In his first post he said it had 20k on it.

Change the guides?