ChillPhatCat
10-04-2004, 03:29 AM
I figured you all might be interested in my latest endeavor, I had been planning to do a cam swap to the 3800 for quite a while and I just hit the 130k mark on the original timing chain so I figured that while I did the timing chain it would be a waste of having access to the camshaft if I didn't swap that out. So I saved a little money and I finally commited to the weekend that I was going to swap the cam. So I went onto zzperformance.com and I ordered the VS camshaft which had the highest lift for the stock heads and biggest horsepower gains. It was also marked as the ideal blower cam. So I clicked on the button and I had it shipped to my house.
Total so far:
$315 for the Cam.
$80 for timing chain and gears.
Total: $395
Not bad I thought... so the cam arrived the thursday before last and I opened up the box to oggle my new cam... pulled it out and admired it. The instruction booklet fell out onto the floor and I opened it up and browsed through their suggested procedure (most of which is irrelevent due to the computer controlled timing) So It says "it is imperative that you install new lifters otherwise you will void your comp cams warranty".
Ok so I head down to advance auto to see if they've got any... should only cost me $60 or so I figured... not too bad (I owned an '84 firebird before this so I was a little oblivious). I got to advance and they aparently don't even stock them. So I go over to autozone and they look it up. "yep we've got 16 of them, 11.99 each." :eek:
Our engines use roller lifters I came to find out... 12 lifters + tax = $155. I realized at this point that I had forgotten something else. Gaskets! ACK! so between the two auto parts store I got a timing cover gasket - $20, water pump gasket - $15. Lower intake manifold gaskets - $35. (no upper intake gaskets were available).
Total in gaskets - $70.
So the total now raised to $620
Saturday
Removed intake and filter, drained the radiator and oil pan and removed the radiator and fan assembly. Unplugged the battery and had a soda break. We moved onto the valve covers after that... took off the ignition modual, EGR valve, front engine hoist bracket, took off the drivers side valve cover and removed pushrods, rocker arms and pushrod guides... things were going pretty well, only took an hour and a half. So we moved on to the passenger side. Got most of the crap off of that side and then we wrestled for 3 hours with the rear engine hoist bolts and finally removed the valve cover rocker arms etc. At this point I had to attend a company picnic (my friend's company) due to the free food rule.
We had about 2 hours of daylight left when we returned... but of course it clouded over and startd to rain. So we called it a day.
Sunday
We start on the intake manifold. We hoped to take the uper and lower intake off in one fell swoop, but of course to get the lower manifold off you have to take off the upper intake and the gasket to get to the bolts. So we carefully took off the upper intake leaving most of the gasket intact (the one we had no replacement for). We removed the fuel rail and injectors and the intake manifold. It all went pretty smooth.
On to the timing cover... at this point we had to remove the harmonic balancer, so I got under the car with the screw driver and held the starter sproket in place while my friend wrenched.. we got out the balancer puller and (3) 1/4" bolts (which haynes said were the correct size) and got in the engine bay to pull it off. Well, the bolts were not 1/4" nor were they fine thread. It took us 4 trips to home depot before we gave up and used the closest aproximation (fine thread 7mm bolt)... by cutting new threads with the bolt we got it on well enough that it could be pulled off.
At this point we took the water pump and timing chain cover off, pulled the gears off and pulled out the camshaft (of course we took the lifters out before that). We lubed up the new camshaft and slowly inserted it into the block. We put the new chain and gear set on and noticed that all of our day light had gone. Well I wanted to at least cover the front of the engine before dark, so we took out the maglight and the silicon goop and the timing cover gasket. After sticking the gasket on, we tried to put the timing chain cover on... no go. We kind of got it on and the bolts and pegs matched up, but it just didn't want to slide on. So I just started to tighten the bolts (brilliant!) and it seemed to be slowly settling into position. CRACK! My friend is holding the light and I say... "I think I did something really really bad" he says "how many really's?" ... "really really really really bad" :silly me:
a nice big crack had shot across the timing chain cover and I knew I was screwed. :o
So monday we figured we'd go to the dealer to order this billion dollar part and then wait out the week to finish the project.
Monday
My friend works 5 mins away from where I work, so I was going to skip out early and go to the dealer. But first I decided to check the one junk yard within 100 miles that might have the part. 3:45PM - I checked their website and one part came up as matching off of a '97 Grand Prix. SO I called them up and confirmed (they're 1 hr away) and told them to hold it for me and that I would be there as soon as possible. He says to me "where you coming from" I say "Ithaca" he says well I dunno if you'll make it, we close at 5:00 so I say "I'll be there!". My friend arrives and we hit the road... obeying most traffic laws; half way there we encounder a jackass road crew and sit for 10 minutes. Back on our way, the clock is ticking. We got there with 1 minute remaining and i ran inside to get the part. Part cost: $68 after tax. :woot: I was so damn happy it wasn't an arm and a leg.
Total so far:
$315 for the Cam.
$80 for timing chain and gears.
Total: $395
Not bad I thought... so the cam arrived the thursday before last and I opened up the box to oggle my new cam... pulled it out and admired it. The instruction booklet fell out onto the floor and I opened it up and browsed through their suggested procedure (most of which is irrelevent due to the computer controlled timing) So It says "it is imperative that you install new lifters otherwise you will void your comp cams warranty".
Ok so I head down to advance auto to see if they've got any... should only cost me $60 or so I figured... not too bad (I owned an '84 firebird before this so I was a little oblivious). I got to advance and they aparently don't even stock them. So I go over to autozone and they look it up. "yep we've got 16 of them, 11.99 each." :eek:
Our engines use roller lifters I came to find out... 12 lifters + tax = $155. I realized at this point that I had forgotten something else. Gaskets! ACK! so between the two auto parts store I got a timing cover gasket - $20, water pump gasket - $15. Lower intake manifold gaskets - $35. (no upper intake gaskets were available).
Total in gaskets - $70.
So the total now raised to $620
Saturday
Removed intake and filter, drained the radiator and oil pan and removed the radiator and fan assembly. Unplugged the battery and had a soda break. We moved onto the valve covers after that... took off the ignition modual, EGR valve, front engine hoist bracket, took off the drivers side valve cover and removed pushrods, rocker arms and pushrod guides... things were going pretty well, only took an hour and a half. So we moved on to the passenger side. Got most of the crap off of that side and then we wrestled for 3 hours with the rear engine hoist bolts and finally removed the valve cover rocker arms etc. At this point I had to attend a company picnic (my friend's company) due to the free food rule.
We had about 2 hours of daylight left when we returned... but of course it clouded over and startd to rain. So we called it a day.
Sunday
We start on the intake manifold. We hoped to take the uper and lower intake off in one fell swoop, but of course to get the lower manifold off you have to take off the upper intake and the gasket to get to the bolts. So we carefully took off the upper intake leaving most of the gasket intact (the one we had no replacement for). We removed the fuel rail and injectors and the intake manifold. It all went pretty smooth.
On to the timing cover... at this point we had to remove the harmonic balancer, so I got under the car with the screw driver and held the starter sproket in place while my friend wrenched.. we got out the balancer puller and (3) 1/4" bolts (which haynes said were the correct size) and got in the engine bay to pull it off. Well, the bolts were not 1/4" nor were they fine thread. It took us 4 trips to home depot before we gave up and used the closest aproximation (fine thread 7mm bolt)... by cutting new threads with the bolt we got it on well enough that it could be pulled off.
At this point we took the water pump and timing chain cover off, pulled the gears off and pulled out the camshaft (of course we took the lifters out before that). We lubed up the new camshaft and slowly inserted it into the block. We put the new chain and gear set on and noticed that all of our day light had gone. Well I wanted to at least cover the front of the engine before dark, so we took out the maglight and the silicon goop and the timing cover gasket. After sticking the gasket on, we tried to put the timing chain cover on... no go. We kind of got it on and the bolts and pegs matched up, but it just didn't want to slide on. So I just started to tighten the bolts (brilliant!) and it seemed to be slowly settling into position. CRACK! My friend is holding the light and I say... "I think I did something really really bad" he says "how many really's?" ... "really really really really bad" :silly me:
a nice big crack had shot across the timing chain cover and I knew I was screwed. :o
So monday we figured we'd go to the dealer to order this billion dollar part and then wait out the week to finish the project.
Monday
My friend works 5 mins away from where I work, so I was going to skip out early and go to the dealer. But first I decided to check the one junk yard within 100 miles that might have the part. 3:45PM - I checked their website and one part came up as matching off of a '97 Grand Prix. SO I called them up and confirmed (they're 1 hr away) and told them to hold it for me and that I would be there as soon as possible. He says to me "where you coming from" I say "Ithaca" he says well I dunno if you'll make it, we close at 5:00 so I say "I'll be there!". My friend arrives and we hit the road... obeying most traffic laws; half way there we encounder a jackass road crew and sit for 10 minutes. Back on our way, the clock is ticking. We got there with 1 minute remaining and i ran inside to get the part. Part cost: $68 after tax. :woot: I was so damn happy it wasn't an arm and a leg.