So after I got my car hot I took it apart and took the head to my old vocational school class. They have the traditional belt sander style machine to make a true flat surface. Well needless to say the hea was extremely warped. And I shaved the head down pretty far. Too explain it at te front of the head there is usually a "ledge" then a square section, I took it down to where it's flush.
Well I threw it on the car and put it together and used a protractor to get the timin as close as I could get. Probably off a couple of degrees yet but didn't run right at idle, now when driving it had INSANE torque and would just destroy the tires but had so much blowby that it was blowing oil out of every crevice and even dumpin oil straight into the exhaust which eventually made it glow cherry red.
I'm sure the head would be safe to run as long as I can get ahold of some adjustable cam gears to get it perfect. My question is where can I get some? What are my other options aside from getting a new head. Thanks. Also I have an ld9 with secret cams

Did you measure how much you took off? I assume you killed the quench area in the head if you took more than .020 off. If I understand what your saying you upped the compression a good bit, but since you killed the quench area you probably gained a bunch of torque and killed the upper RPMS. Back in the day. Olds and rocketparts used to time the quad 4 for 2 degree advance on the intake, and 2 degree retard on the exhaust.

McMoney is the only one that makes adjustable cam gear and cover. Around $750 last I heard/read.

You might have also entered the oil passages....or breached a void in the head.


The cherry red could also be from the changed quench area in the head.....






PRND321 Till I DIE
Old Motor: 160whp & 152ft/lbs, 1/4 Mile 15.4 @88.2
M45 + LD9 + 4T40-E, GO GO GO

Ah I see. Well it's not to difficult for me to obtain another head, probably go 2.3 then. The torque gain was incredible and since I had the stock oil pump I wasn't worried about higher rpms. The only way to truly know if I killed the oil passages is to tear it apart and look at the head correct?
When running I could watch oil boil out of the leak in the exhaust manifold gasket and it was literally blowing out of the oil/air seperater. I assume when it got hot (thermostat stuck closed and boiled all the coolant out) it fried the rings and more due to the fact when turning the engine over to test if valves would hit I could hear air leaking past the cylinders.

Now if I read correctly a tighter quench area is better? But the red exhaust could suggest it was also burning too rich. The plugs weren't fouled out when I looked at them nor were they burning to hot or cold. They were perfect. Bit I do have stock exhaust for now. I have a full straight pipe exhaust just have yet to install it. I do believe I have upped the compression a lot. I had to modify the front timing case to compensate so the cam could fit in the cover. I didn't experience and slack in the chain between the chain itself and the upper guide. An $750 would be far too much instead of paying $50 for a head from the scrapyard

If you have blow by it doesnt matter what head you have on. Taking so much off the head(I think) advances the cams. It is possible that they are advanced so much that the combustion fire is actially getting into the exhaust causing the exhaust to heat up. Not sure about the oil issue.

These are what I used to adust my cams. You drill out part of the back timing gear hole that the cam dowel goes through, just enough for these to sit in flush and use these to advance or retard the gears. Not near as adjustable as the McMoney setup since you have to disassemble to change them. But a viable option for sure.

Yeah it was rediculous blowby. I'm rebuilding one now and would like to use this head personally. Zs z, could you explain how these are used further?

Basically they come in a set of 5 or 6 depending where you buy them. basically you are drilling out the cam dowel hole in the timing gear and insert these bushings in the enlarged holes. They off set the cam 0, 2, 4, 6, 8 degrees depending on which you use and you can choose to advance or retard. also the sell 1, 3, 5, 7, 9 degree kits as well.

This is a great idea, I think I'll go with this option first and try it out! So if I'm correct I have to purchase two sets to get the cams the same degree off

Yes that is correct.

Z24Sunfire wrote:Now if I read correctly a tighter quench area is better? But the red exhaust could suggest it was also burning too rich. The plugs weren't fouled out when I looked at them nor were they burning to hot or cold. They were perfect. Bit I do have stock exhaust for now. I have a full straight pipe exhaust just have yet to install it. I do believe I have upped the compression a lot. I had to modify the front timing case to compensate so the cam could fit in the cover. I didn't experience and slack in the chain between the chain itself and the upper guide. An $750 would be far too much instead of paying $50 for a head from the scrapyard

Tighter quench is not necessarily better. There's an optimum range you're shooting for depending on whether youre going N/A, boosting or spraying. Too tight of a quench leads to higher cylinder temperatures and I higher chance of heat related detonation.

That head is junk. Give up and move on. I don't understand cobbling something together to make a screw up work. I know we all make mistakes but know when to cut your losses. Haha.

Youre telling me UNOH doesnt have a mill to do a head resurfacing on?

I have given up and am going 086 head. I'm not at unoh and haven't been for a year now. I took it to my vocational school

I thought it retards both cams shaving the head anyways...

086 will be more fun and probably about the same compression, dont forget to snag the manifolds as well. For the record though cam gear bushings are not "cobbling' something together. They have been around and used in the v8 world for many many years.

That's my thought. I'm excited!

I believe Brian is talking about the head.




PRND321 Till I DIE
Old Motor: 160whp & 152ft/lbs, 1/4 Mile 15.4 @88.2
M45 + LD9 + 4T40-E, GO GO GO

-MD- Enforcer wrote:I believe Brian is talking about the head.

Thatd be correct. Using cam bushings to correct the fact that he decked the head like 0.080" is cobbling. Cam bushings in themselves actually look pretty interesting.

-MD- Enforcer wrote:Did you measure how much you took off? I assume you killed the quench area in the head if you took more than .020 off. If I understand what your saying you upped the compression a good bit, but since you killed the quench area you probably gained a bunch of torque and killed the upper RPMS. Back in the day. Olds and rocketparts used to time the quad 4 for 2 degree advance on the intake, and 2 degree retard on the exhaust.

McMoney is the only one that makes adjustable cam gear and cover. Around $750 last I heard/read.

You might have also entered the oil passages....or breached a void in the head.


The cherry red could also be from the changed quench area in the head.....

Still interested in trying this out

Mine doing the same damn thing! Shaved head .020 valves reseated. Rings are good though. Sometimes starts and sputters literally hates idleing. Has 95 intake cam... running on regular pump gas.. maybe higher would help?

personally, i wont ever gain shave a head without being able to correct the cam timing. these motors are so finicky when it comes to cam timing its not funny. even a slight decking will through them off. so, either get a thicker head gasket to offset what you have done OR do adjustable gears, take the time and do the math and dial them back in to where they would be before the decking.



RIP silver car. You will be missed.

I'm still skeptical of this^^^^. I've seen it some on other forums too. I need to look into it some more I guess. The way I'm familiar with gears and pulleys kind of leads me to believe that decking the head shouldn't hurt anything.

its all in the math (which i am turrrrrible at lol)

when my machinst had my engine he set it up (my head is decked .020, block .007) and iirc he said it takes .037 off of whatever to mess up the cam timing one degree per cam. now, one degree per cam might not be much but in the end its still not right.



RIP silver car. You will be missed.

If you find any good articles on that, shoot them my way. I've been trying to wrap my brain around it for awhile. Haha.

I have some videos of it running... it chuggles and bogs.. blap blap blap. Only at idle itll do this and even dies out. Does still haul ass though. Even better since the valves are seating, compression upd, and 95 secret cam installed... whats the worst case scenario here? SO. My timing is off how much with .020 shaved? I do have mcmoneys gears... but screw it.. let the pistons and bearings fly out the block!

Honestly I doubt the head shave would cause problems like youre having.

Are you sure its actually timed right? Like not a tooth of on the crank or anything?

Pretty sure its right! Suppose its just both cams being retarded causing the lower idle to blap. Little throttle and it goes away... now revving it up itll rev down slower than normal... overdrive gear in the 4t60e feels way different