I am planning on putting in a cam. My buddy says that changing the springs is a major job because we would have to pull of the heads and such... Is this true? How long to put in different springs, pushrods, lifters and rockers? Thanks. Also how long did it take you to do everything for cam swap?

 

You can change the springs on the car. It takes a few hours, but can be done by applying air pressure to the cylinder at the spark plug hole to hold up the valve. There are a few low profile valve spring compressors that will fit under the cowl of a 4th gen F-body.

 

Take a look and decide for yourself.

 

Changing the valve springs is actually pretty easy. Just bring the cylinder to TDC and the valve wont drop. The Autozone loaner tool i got worked fine for me, had no problems with the valves under the cowl. Probably took me about 3 hours to swap all the springs, can kinda be a pain to get the locks in.

Toughest part of the cam install is the stupid timing cover and not ripping the oil pan seal.

Took me about 18 hours total to install my cam. First install like this of any kind and it went very smoothly for me. I had no problems at all, even started up for me with no check engine light.

Follow the install guides on shoebox's website and you shouldnt have any problems.

 

So, you didnt remove your heads from your block? I just am wondering if you removed your heads and then did the cam install.

 

Not necessary.

 

No, i did not remove the heads. I used these two install guides as a supplement to the info i found on shoebox's site.

http://www.streetillusionsracing.com...ll/Cam/cam.htm

http://www.afrashteh.com/guide/install.htm

 

I actually bought a valve spring compressor from Advance Auto that they had on the shelf. The KD spring compressor doesn't work very well with dual valve springs, and will not grip the inner spring. The one from Advance had larger jaws that gripped both the outside and inner spring, and was pretty easy on the hands. The KD compressor has an awkward shaped handle, and can really hurt after 9 or 10 springs.