Install your own cam or have someone else do it?
I agree, very good advise. You screw something up it could cost you more than paying someone that knows their stuff not to mention the tools youre gonna need to buy.
I was totally on board with doing a head/cam swap myself on my 00 C5 but after reading post after post about cracking the block when torquing the head, messing up the steering column with the rack removed and other assorted issues, I decided to go with Lashway in Ft Lauderdale. Their free cam deal with them doing the install and tune also helped immensely.
TECH Addict
Joined: Jun 2002
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From: Las Vegas, NV
I was totally on board with doing a head/cam swap myself on my 00 C5 but after reading post after post about cracking the block when torquing the head, messing up the steering column with the rack removed and other assorted issues, I decided to go with Lashway in Ft Lauderdale. Their free cam deal with them doing the install and tune also helped immensely.
Sure, if you don't, for example, clean all the coolant out of the bolt holes you definitely could crack your block, but that just means you have to make sure to get those bolt holes good and clean, not that you just throw up your hands and say **** it.
Anyway, you got your stuff installed so it's all good, but you did pass on an opportunity to save a bunch of cash as well as learn a lot about yourself as well as your car. No risk no reward. FWIW.
If you have any mechanical ability and you feel like giving it a try I say go for it. Buy the right tools to make it easy like, the hawk pulley install tool and dual spring tool. It really makes it go a lot smoother. I had never done anything like a cam swap before I did my first one on an LS1. All I had done up to that point was a LS6 intake and a cat back. It gave me a lot of confidence to do it my self. Since that experience I have now built a few LS1s and swapped 4 in and out of fbodys. Just take your time and do it right the first time it really isn’t that hard. Good luck
