Unclean installs can easily messup a bearing. It's easy to get grim in the engine when taking things apart on our cars, and It wouldnt take much to messup bearings either...

From what i've seen on the board, over reving was usually the case... some people get real excited about their new cam and rev it to the high heavens ... and thus the stock bearings bit the dust

 

I just went to alldata and it calls for 13.6 hours. Most shops are between 65-75 an hour. i would figure around 850.00-1000.00 + parts.

Shawn

 

I did mine in under 1hr... However, I did happen to have the engine already built and on an engine stand.. So I cheated! I bet 12hrs would be about right if your pretty mechanically inclined.

 

Cam swap with motor in the car is kind of difficult but not too bad if you have some time. I did my first heads/cam swap with the motor in and it took me about 5 days of working in the evenings from 6-9.

I think if you change valvesprings with the heads on the car it might be a bitch. Also remember to drop the front of the oil pan down some before removing the timing cover so you don't rip the pan gasket and the seals on the cover.

It seems there is a new explanation for bearing failures on this board every time I sign on. At first it was people re-torquing heads and distorting the block which caused spun bearings. Now it's wear patterns on the bearings. Who knows, one of those could be right. From experience though, I installed a HOTcam and some ported heads and had no problems for about 10k miles. The block cracked but it was in no way related to the swap. Hell I ran the motor on a mixture of oil and coolant for about 1500 miles, some of them quite hard driven and STILL didn't spin a bearing. The oil came out looking like chocolate milk. My advice is keep your work area and internal engine surfaces as clean as possible and don't get crazy with the revs after it's together. If you do that it will greatly reduce your chances of trouble.

 

Me and a friend did his in about 14 hours over 2 days. Who knows how long mine took i did everything a little at a time over a month or so.

 

Is it really a mystery why bearings are spun after cam and/or head installations? The answer would seem obvious if you compare the stockers with modders with regard to spun bearings and other broken parts.

For those of you who did your own work, but failed to pay great attention to detail, it becomes a mystery. For those of US who entrusted our installations to others, it becomes a mystery (since the installers are sure not going to admit to any mistakes or omissions).

So we can take a guess at what caused the failures, but maybe it's a combination of errors and omissions, or maybe it as simple as the stock bottom ends were never really built to take the abuse that many Camaro owners believe they should.

I sure don't know, but for one who happens to have a 97SS with less than 10 grand on it and has gone through the original block with less than 7 grand on it (absolutely no abuse) and nearly lost the new 4-bolt short block because of an unstable valve train caused by errors and omissions by the installers of the new block, I have been able to convince myself it is a combination of abuse and neglect.

My advice to anyone would be to either do your own work and pay great attention to detail, or have someone with a great reputation who will guarantee that work ( I mean in writing) do the work and who will invite you to watch and help with the work).

You may believe that would be too much to ask, but from someone who has about $45000 into a 97 Camaro ( about 8 grand of that due to apparent screw ups by mechanics, I believe I speak with at least a modicum of experience.

It's not much fun wondering if your next trip to the grocery store will result in a call to the towing company and another trip to the bank.

I will say this though. I reallly like that car.

 

Nice post.

My personal advice for a cam install:
KEEP EVERYTHING CLEAN, CLEAN, CLEAN. Can't stress that enough!
Invest in a quality torque wrench and torque everything to factory torque specifications.
Take your time and clean dirt and gasket surfaces well.
Change oil a few times after the cam install. I changed mine once after a few hours on the new cam and then once again after about 100 miles and then once again in about 1000. This might be overkill to some, but regular oil is cheap. Cheaper than a rebuild.

 

How many miles did your car have on it Ion when you changed your cam, and what kind of cam, and what are you reving out to, and how many miles roughly do you have on it now?

Tim

 

Tim: to whom are you addressing your?

 

Madwolf.. but if anyone else wants to chime in w/ there answer.. go for it.

 

Probally the oldest car I've put a cam in was my fathers mustang.. It has 160k on the factory short block. Its been together, rev'ed nicely etc.. no problems.

The first cam I installed was in my firebird at 99K miles. I drove it daily, shifted it at 6400rpm, and raced it weekly. It had 142K miles when I tore it apart. I pulled the engine to rebuild it to fix oil leaks mainly, almost every seal on the car was leaking after I put a blower on it so I figured just to go ahead and rebuild it all. It didn't have 1 spun bearing.

There is no reason why a camshaft will doom a motor. Take you time, get stuff clean. INSTALL IT AT 12 and 6 PERFECTLY. If you have questions ask someone that has done it before to come over and help.


If you prefer to cut corners and do stuff half-assed you do not need to attempt to install a cam.

 

BTW. the worst part about installing a cam is changing the valve springs. For me I had the cam in before lunch, the rest of the afternoon was spent putting the engine back together then the entire 8 hours on the second day was spent on messing around with one of those cheezy little valve spring compressors.

 

I have a 233/239/112 in mine right now. The engine has about ~50K miles and it sat for a few years.
I reved it to 6700-6800 many times and it runs great. I don't rev it that high anymore though. Maybe when I take it to the track/dyno again.
I plan on getting some new cam only numbers out of it after the 6 speed swap and then it's getting a new cam and heads.
I've only put about 3000 miles since the cam install. It's not my daily driver, but it definetely gets more use after the 6 speed swap.

 

I installed my cam and had everything but the intake on(it was still at the powder coaters) in maybe 10 hours doing about 95% or so of the work myself.

Installing the valvesprings turned out to be the most difficult part since the heads where on and they were actually done prior to the cam install so add another 6 hrs or so on top the original 10 if you go with a really stout dual coil spring... LT4 hotcam springs take maybe 1-2 hours to install for comparison and they are just a tad larger than stock. Its when you get something like a comp 987(dual spring with a seperate inner spring as well for 3 total coils) that you find yourself spending considerable time on the installation.

As far as reliability is concerned. I installed my cam at 82k and its still going strong at 102k. At 99k I decided to add some LE ported heads too which some ppl believe is a receipt for disaster but so far like I said its all good and I dont baby the motor at all. I attribute my success to keeping things clean and keeping the motor covered while I wasnt working over it.

 

Man... I wish I knew where you could get a cam swap for $12 including parts!