... because they are the most glorious two bars of metal I have ever laid eyes on, and may they be worshipped for all time.
I thought at first that my rough idle was just, you know, normal cam stuff. My friends were all on the same page, telling me, "dude, when you get cams, your car idles bad. That's just the way it is, deal with it." They said my loud clicking noises and reving problems were also normal. "The lifters are just making noise 'cause it's more work, and you lost a lot of torque, so you rev bad at the start."
Well, I took the time to check my engine's timing. My friends also never bothered to put my car at TDC when we did this, saying "it's just a reference point, we just need to make marks and everything's cool." I don't mean to rag on 'em or anything, they were trying to help me out. But, yeah, it was off. So I fixed it.
My car idles like a dream... I'd swear someone switched my cams back to stock if I didn't know better. It's still got that nice sound to the exhaust though, a slight lobing sound. No more clicking, no more problems reving.
I've been out racing my car with my friends for the last four or so hours. My car finally is back to running okay, it's... you know. It's a good feeling knowing your car is okay again. It's got a nice lil' jump in power, too, where I can beat my friend's V6 camaro up till about middle of third gear.
So, just saying, sorry 'bout my angry post about the cams not being worth it before. I have totally changed my mind.
~Wayrin
<a href="http://www.cardomain.com/id/wayrin">My Cardomain Page</a>
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lol
glad to see you saw the light
now...timing being off...did you damage your motor? we have low tolerance engines...just a little off...and @!#$ starts breaking. How loud was it pinging? wouldn't surprise me if you dinged your pistons up...watch your oil level...if you start using oil....you messed @!#$ up, and the retard that installed your cams that says timing marks are guidelines...needs to turn his tools in, and give you a new motor.
Congrats it works now though!
Yea, it messes up the engine pretty bad. I know this...
<img src="http://www.j-body.org/registry/americanred/deplysig.gif">
I"d be worried about bent valves man.
I could have told you that the Hybrid Cams idle like stock... the car doesn't seem ANY different really... until you pass 3500 rpm and suddenly it's like "woah wtf."
-Chris-
-Sweetness-
-Turbocharged-
Slowly but surely may some day win this race...
If you are only off a tooth, it should be okay, just idle bad.
Any more than that it won't run, or it will go bang.
-da chinchilla
<img src="http://registry.gmenthusiast.com/images/jiggamon/avatar15569_2.gif">
Must get those cams!
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I had my car 4 degrees off on timing for over a year....engine runs like a dream now that it has been reset...still needs a bit of fine tuning, though (1 degree off I think) but yeah, havent noticed any engine probs...neither has the shop...
im glad to hear and all, but you have cams and i/e and you cant beat your friends V6 Camaro? Please tell me he has some work done or I dont think your car is running that well
My timing... how to put it... I really can't say how many degrees my timing was off. But, thing is... I think my intake cam was timed. My exhaust cam, however, looked to be like 5-10 degress off of my intake cam. My entire car shook pretty violently though.
I hope I haven't bent anything =( I'm actually leaking oil, and I do have a big problem. I think I crossthreaded the hole on the right side of the exhaust cam, so that I can't tighten the bolt all the way down. I have a nice lil' stream of oil that comes out, and a nice white cloud of smoke out of my engine bay at idle. I'm not quite sure what to do about this yet.
Oh, and about the camaro =P I'm also not the greatest racer in the world, I don't do it very often. I hear I should be able to beat him stock, so I'm attributing it to needing some quarter mile practice.
~Wayrin
<a href="http://www.cardomain.com/id/wayrin">My Cardomain Page</a>
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If you mean one of the holes that connect the timing case to the cam housing, then you can get a new cam housing...or just drill it a size bigger and re-tap it for the next size bolt.
-da chinchilla
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i know dave had his sunfire 1 tooth off and his ran like crap tell it was fixed
also there is a gasket that is between the cam tower and the timing cover , and if you put that gasket in back wards , you will have a oil leak
fsctcavz24 had that happend on his intake cam side and lost alot of oil quickly , dave had the problem with his and his was a slower leak
the gasket blocks a open passage when installed correctly , and uncovers the hole when its installed incorrectly
Hmm... I'll have to check it out. It's actually the other side, with the power steering and all that. But I very well may have put that timing chain gasket on backwards, 'cause the majority of the smoking I'm seeing coming out of the engine bay is on that side. Thanks y'all, I'll go look now.
~Wayrin
<a href="http://www.cardomain.com/id/wayrin">My Cardomain Page</a>
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is secret cam swap worth it? I wanna do it but ill buy new cams instead of using old ones from junkyards. I heard you lose alot of low end power and all. Would you go with em or would you go with jbp cams or stock?
For me, the best part of this swap was how much I figured out about engines. This was essentially the first time I've done anything to an engine besides a bolt on.
What I mean by that is that I wanted to do the swap spending as little money as possible =) I saw the video of someone else who put on the jbp cams... his car seemed to shake a lil' bit. I mean, that's entirely normal for a cam swap, and I'm sure he's getting many more horses than I am. But I love the fact my car still idles like stock. And that the entire thing cost me less than $100... haha.
Anyways, I'll hopefully be taking my car to a shop to get an opinion on what to do about the oil leak. Wish me luck.
~Wayrin
<a href="http://www.cardomain.com/id/wayrin">My Cardomain Page</a>
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