After reading the post on heads effecting the cam bearings and all that, I would like to hear from all that did cam installs.

1. What oil did you use for break in and how long before changing?

2. Did you do heads at the same time?

3. Was the swap a success or do you lose a bearing?

Just like to see what sort of stats we get from the members here

Jeff D.

 

Used some off brand oil, $4 for 5 quarts or something like that. 10w-30, non synthetic.

Let it run for 10 minutes, varying RPMS, nothing above 3500.

Drained oil, refilled with cheap stuff. Drove it around for a day, upper and lower RPMS. Then changed it out to mobile 1 synthetic. Changed that out after 500 miles, then went to normal changes.

Heads have never been off the car.

Bearings are good, rev way past 6500 pretty often

 

Mine went real well, I did only a new cam with 1.6 rockers, new springs, timing chain, everything else like lifters I left alone. Those problems you hear of bearing and such are mostly caused from dirt getting in and other crap that people were careless to let in. I took my time and torqued everything down to spec and in proper sequence. THe only problem was the waterpump seal, which I messed up, but I put a new one on and have had no problems since. I did like the guy above, I used some cheapy oil for the first 20 minutes, drained it then put more cheapy stuff and then waited 500 miles and added more cheapy stuff. Which I always use since I change it out frequently enough I don't bother using the expensive stuff. I've been pretty hapy with all my mods none have turned sour

 

ok, stupid question, im just getting into 4th gens though. obviously you dont have to pull the motor in these cars to do it. what all has to be removed to get the old cam out and slide the new one in?

 

I had a mechanic do it....

The LT4 hot cam needs no break in....ther'es some reason for it and someone will know it.

Same heads....wish I did work on them at the time

I gained like 40 HP with a tune with it....I consider it a stat.

I went from 276-316 HP....whatever that is (with tune)

 

I think some of the problem is that many people don't lube the cam good enough during install. Then in the first few minutes of running there isn't enough lube there to keep it from scoring the bearings. Once the damage is done, it's only a matter of time before it grabs and spins. USE PLENTY OF ASSEMBLY LUBE!!!

 

It is a roller cam, they dont really wear and dont really need a break in. It is a smart idea to do it anyway to be safe.

Radiator/fans has to come out, and the a/c has to be pushed to the side. All accesories must come off. Intake, lifters, opti, etc has to come out/off.

Benji

 

Obviously everything off the front of the motor including loosning the oil pan, and not the AC compressor. The AC condenser and radiator make enough room for the cam to come out.

1) Supertech 5w-30 fram filter. 10 minutes varying below 3k.
Then new Supertech 5w-30 with a new fram ~200 mi below 3k rpm + another ~100mi below 4k rpm. (i was temped to change it a third time because the oil and fram where so inexpensive)
Back to mobil1 + K&N, and now spin to 6200-6300.
Stock lifters and pushrods. 60k mi on motor at time of swap.

2) Unfortunatly not, they are going on this coming summer.

3) Don't know exactly but ~ 1500-2k mi and no problem knock on wood.

-Brent

 

Brent,

Did you install RR's and springs when you changed your cam? Or was it a mild enough cam to leave all that alone?

 

Yes, cmotorsports springs and 3/8 nonSA CCProMag rocker. I have a 94 so i resued the hardened pushrods. I reused my lifters based on the fact that i only had 60k miles and this motor will probably only see another 20k MAX before i move to a fully built motor.

I don't know of any cams mild enough not to require a spring swap since 1.6's ont he stock cam have caused exhuast side problems for some people.

 

that's my delimma. I want to just do the stroker, solid roller cam, heads, etc, rather than slowly upgrading and needing what I ulitmately want later. Doing my own work so I'll save a ton on labor but still saving up takes some time ..lol. Thanks for the info

 

I did LT4 heads and a CC 306 cam in a buddies car. He ended up going with crane roller rockers too. The hardest part was pulling the trigger on what length push rods he needed. We used a push rod length checker, but we were un-sure of how they were exactly measured. We didn't know if was total gross length, or length minus the short bit that the rod fits into the pocket of the rocker, and the pocket in the lifter.

Anyway, we finished it up and it runs fine. We used cheap oil to lube up the cam, and were really careful installing it. We didn't do any type of break in procedure, other than waiting to punch it real hard until the valve springs had some hot/cold cycles on them. I don't see what needs to "broken in" on a roller cam/roller lifter swap. He's got about 10k on it now, runs just fine.

 

1. I used some el cheap-o Wal Mart brand oil with 2 Fram filters.

2. Stock heads still.

3. Success! Been driving around with the cam for over a year now. No problems related to the swap at all. I subsequently had the opti poop the bed, but that was my fault for getting coolant all over it. I did the swap with 103k miles on the car, it now has about 113k.

 

I did heads cam about 800miles ago I have over a 114k on my car now.No problems at all. you can see my best pass here. I also spray 150 shots almost weekly on it.

 

MY car

2 cam swaps

1st, 60k miles, heads and cam (cc306)
oil changed at 20 mins
spun two mains 10 miles later

all bearings replaces...spun again at 300 miles
never was able to get on it


2 attempt
heads cam(bigg sollid) on a 40k miles short block
oil changed at 10 mins, 50 miles
lost oil pressure underload at 90 miles
bearings replaced
600 break it miles(all sythentic oild change 3 times) loses oild pressure at wot
cam bearings all shot

***c

OTHER PPL CARS
5 total assortment of cams, i istall all these, all have been 100% successes wtf

im staying stock now on
good luck