Any word?

 

I can tell the vendor from the way the cam looks . I don't think you will have a problem getting it replaced ,they are standup people .

On another note I have installed 3 of thes cams 226 and they all made good power around the the 390 range w/ls6 intake and bolt ons . Its a good cam

 

I believe I know the cam as well and I have it, made great torque and a nuthair under 400whp through an auto on some big sticky *** tires and home ported heads. Customer service is definately top notch, I am assured you will be taken care of.

 

Ok, finally have an update. I decided to drive down to Patriot Performance to swap out the cam, since they are less than 2 hours away. A co-worker offered to fly me down there for the $30 it would have cost me to drive, so we hopped in the Cessna 174 and made it in 25 minutes. Marty at Patriot was very cool about the cam replacement. I had explained about purchasing it from a forum member, but he had no problem replacing the cam for me. I got a couple free tee shirts for my trouble too. I slipped the new cam in as soon as I got home, but the remainder of assembly will have to wait until I get home from a quick trip to visit Granny.

 

I knew it was a patriot Gunners a stand up guy always dose right. Some really good customer service over there . ANothere 226 cam ariver today at the shop going in tommarow. Thats a great cam good luck

 

that smells like the exact same cam i have....if it is they have pretty good customer service and should take care of it!

 

I'm guessing that's an advantage of having the cam spec'd on a cam doctor?

 

That’s pretty sweet, flying is way more fun then driving anyways. I also knew it was a PP cam especially after you listed the advertised specs. LOL
They are good people over there. Good luck with the rest of the install.
Jeremy

 

I wish I could do that. Just jump in a plane and fly where ever I needed to go. Glad to see that you got it resolved and keep us updated with the build.

 

It's about time for an update. This past weekend I was able to finish up the cam swap. I'll have to admit, it was a bit more of a job than I anticipated. Partly due to working off jack stands and not having the right valve spring compressor, etc.

Here are a couple of tips for othes doing in-car valve spring replacement:

I imagine at one point there were some other lessons learned, but I have slept since then. Now, on to some pictures to make it worth your time.

I got cheap at the last minute and didn't buy the Crane valve spring compressor. A combination of stubborness and resourcefullness (?) drove me to make my old SBC valve spring compressor adapt to the LS1. (Recognize the box Gene Culley?)


I welded an M8x1.25 (20 mm long) bolt to a 7/16-20 bolt, and I was off and running. It held together for all 16 valves, but the M8 bolt was pretty bent by the end of the job.


The second problem with this valve spring compressor was the cowl overhang on the back two cylinders. I had a small victory when I managed to disassemble the spring compressor, thread it onto the head, and re-assemble it in position. All in all the springs and valve seals ate up my Saturday afternoon.



I am just glad that Chevy found enough power out of an 8 cylinder with 2 valves per cylinder (silly Viper & Cobra designs). And speaking of finding power - although I am still running on the stock tune, I have discovered that fishtailing on the 1-2 shift is pretty fun . The only part of this project that I will have to re-do is the pushrods. I bought stock 7.400" length, and it has quite a bit of valvetrain noise (i.e. I can still hear it cruising around 50 mph). I need to go back in and check the contact pattern. It could probably use some longer pushrods. I do remember reading that from another forum member with this same cam.

 

Did you not pressure the cylinders to hold the valves? To me thats the easiest way Ive found to do so. Bought some adapters from advance to screw in the spark plug hole and hook the air hose to it. Keeps the valves seated while you change the springs. Still takes a couple hours to swap the out one by one though.

Oh, and is the rack and pinion still in the car? I could tell from your pics.

 

I started to use air pressure in the cylinders, but I felt like it was safer to just have the piston at TDC, and it was a pain to thread in my compression gauge hose in each spark plug hole. Probably no more difficult either way. I had to take out the rack for the cam swap, but it was back in by the time I replaced the valves springs.

 

True, It is with the headers still in the car. Oh well, least you got it done. Now PM Gomer for a tune. He's in Albertville.

 

I was going to use a friend's HPTuner on my car, but it is the older Serial cable version, and they now charge $200 to license additional cars on it. So, I guess I'll just take the easy route and let Gomer tune it. The local Corvette club is getting together a tune day with Gomer, and I am on the list. Thanks for the input.

 

I was able to meet up with Gomer this afternoon and get a quick street tune. He cleaned up the idle a bunch, and took out some fuel at WOT. Bumping the rev limiter to 6700 lets me shift around 6,400 now. I wonder how long this stock clutch with 133k miles will hold up. Man this LS1 has come alive. It sure is tempting to add some heads too....