DON'T use pen magnets while doing a cam swap!!
 

I'm telling people this now based on the experience i just had with them.....another member on here(Blacker) and i have been working on my cam install for the past couple of days and we finally got to swapping the cam out last night and got to use the pen magnet trick on the lifters....WELL to make a long story short while pulling one of the magnets off the lifters it was stuck so hardcore on there it broke off with a little bit of the shaft on the magnet down inside the head :bang: so after an hour of coming up with ideas and fishing around i was able to put the broken piece over the piece that was still down in there and we got it out....only to find that the magnet was still on the lifter!!! :bang: :bang: :bang: anyway Blacker started fishing around for the magnet with another magnet and about 20 minutes later pulled it out to both of our amazement...this wasted about an hours worth of our time trying to fish out this stupid magnet crap out of my head....ohhhwell just passing on my experience to others to hopefully get them to use that JPR tool or something to put in thoose two little holes to hold the lifters up...not to much left to do now just have to change the oil pump and timing chain and bolt her all back up :drive:

a lit of guys just go buy an aluminum or iron rod to stick in...just gotta get the right size..couldnt tell ya what size it was...I think it was like 1/4" or3/8" or something like that...cut to length for the engine......but its the same as the tool without the handle.,..and costs about $5

and with pen magnets you always have to test them before putting them in your engine...sometimes it takes a little epoxy with the thing to guarantee thay dont come apart...
and one of those claw grabbers is useful for fishing them out too...

Does anyone know what size it rod to get exactly? Can I just get it at my local hardwear shop. I am going to do a cam swap in about a week and dont really feel like using pen magnets. It seems a lot easire just to stick the rod in there to hold up the lifters. I cant even find the JPR tool on the thnder site. Does anyone know where it is on there site and how much it is?

It there and its 85.00. The size rod you need is 5/16'

http://www.thunderracing.com/catalog...&vid=3&pcid=17

85 bucks???? :eek2:

You can go to a parts store, buy some brake line, round the end off, and works just as good for about 83 bucks less :P

A friend of mine was using the magnets to do his cam swap and the same thing nearly happened to his car. He was able to get them unstuck.

the rod is about 3/8's and it is D shaped.

I have heard of several people doing the 1/4 rod trick, and a lifter slipping by.......
Then that 85.00 seems very cheap.

Pen magnets rule! Worked like a charm for my cam swap. Don't get the crappy ones. I stepped up to the high performance ones for $2.00 each :D....You get what you paid for!

i actually bought some that were 3 dollars each then one broke so i bought some from lowes and they were 5 bucks each :eek2: but anyway it was the 5 dollar hardcore one from Lowes that got stuck to lifter.....man that thing just didnt want to let go...all is well though i just have to get my car back together lol

a friend of mine had that happen, but he wasnt sure if the head came off before or after the swap(guess he wasnt paying much attension beforehand) so either hes still got the magnet on top of the one lifter or he lucked out cuz he couldnt fish anything off the top of the lifter so just assumed it was ok...that was like 20k miles ago though so im assuming everything is kewl.

Not the first time Ive heard of that...

The reason it slipped by is because 1/4" is too small 5/16" and 6/16" (3/8) wouldve been the right sizes

Im gettin ready to put a cam in, I got 2- 3 ft. rods from home depot for $4.,its 5/16 " ,some here said 1/4 " is too small lifters slip by.

Pens worked ok for me, next time I do a swap im gonna get the rod from Home depot.

After seeing what the problems are using pen magnets, I would never recommend them. Granted it is a slim chance of loosing magnet but, it was a bitch getting it off the lifter. The zinc rods from the Home Depot will be my first choice and a hell of a lot cheaper.

Got it running yet :drive:

3 cam swaps here with the same magnets and no problems yet. you just gotta be careful :)

If that magnet broke off and remained stuck to the lifter there is no way the pushrod would go in properly and the rocker seat properly. I had trouble with the magnets too. I was only able to get the cam about 1/3 of the way out using magnets. Never did figure out which lifter was interfering with the cam lobe. Used the JPR tool and the cam jumped out the block by it self while I drank a beer. It is highly overpriced though. Those magnets don't need to be nearly as strong as they are to do the job of holding the lifters up because the lifter move freely inside of the plastic retainers. If they are holding the lifter tight enough to get stuck to the lifter when you try to pull the magnet out the magnet is a whole lot stronger than it needs to be. It sounds like the magnet was so strong it self-destructed when it was being removed.

Let's see 16 magnets @ $5.00 a piece comes to $80.00! Makes the overpriced JPR tool look more appealing. JPR tool worked fine with my cam swap.

Only think i read somwhere is theJPR tool CANNOT be used with after market lifters. So I guess after the heads are off and some comp-R's are used you will have an 85.00 paper weight

i have comp r lifters,will the home depot rod work for me? do i have to use pen magnets now? the home depot rod is it round or D shaped? thanks

lol yeah i ended up spending roughly 50-60 bucks on pen magnets got about 11 from autozone for 3 a piece :eyes: ohhwell.....and no the car isnt back together yet brian lol didnt get a chance to work on it last night i'll prolly go over tonight and mess with it though

so, when you go in home depot, what is it called and is it round or d shaped??

and you just slid it in both sides above the cam and you can then take the cam out??

and how do you get them to stay up holding the lifters by yourself?? thanks

Used a 1/4 inch square rod laying around the shop. worked awesome.

If you look at the lifters from the side there is a recessed area the tool slides into. The top lip of this recessed area is what sits on the tool and keeps it from falling down. It doesn't take much force to hold up the lifter because the pushrods are out and the valve springs are unloaded at this point. The tool only has to hold up the weight of the lifter itself and that's only a few ounces. Some people are lucky and have done cam swaps WITHOUT using any type of tool and depend solely on the plastic retainers to keep the lifters up, but you have to be willing to remove the heads if you use this method and a lifter happens to fall before you can get the new cam in.

exact same thing happened to us during our cam change we just put JB weld on an old pushrod and put it down the hole for 20 minutes and pulled the magnet right out

FWIW, I've never used any type of tool to hold them up. Just spun the cam around three or four times, pulled it out, slid the new one right back in and done. Maybe I'm just lucky.