This is definitely a trivial question, but do I use the tooth that holds the gear from my old cam on the new one? There's a groove that looks like it'd fit it exactly, but i don't want to damage the old cam trying to remove the tooth from it.
Most times I find the easiest way to remove these is by gripping the key with a diagonal cutter and leveraging it out. any raised areas you put in it’s sides from the cutter can be sanded out with 280 grit.
Thank you! Didn't want to damage it by gripping or pulling too hard. Maybe vice grips could work as well, they were pretty good at taking out main caps.
I don’t think you will get the leverage you need if it’s in tight with vise grips, but give it a shot as long as the teeth are new and sharp, if there used and dull then your likely wasting your time! The jaws in a good pair of cutters are much harder then a vise grip.
You can pinch the key with vise grips and tap lightly on the vice grip with a ball peen hammer and it will come right out with no damage.
Thanks for the help everyone. I ended up having to take a putty knife and wack it with a hammer a few times between the key and cam at the cam nose. Neither the vice grips nor side cutters were able to leverage it out and it just ate the teeth up on both.
A followup question though, which may be even more trivial. When I was putting in my new cam, I noticed that the cams would contact my rods if they were at BDC, so i needed to have the crank at a certain angle to be able to fully rotate the cam when fully installed. When I put the gears on and aligned the 'dots,' I was able to fully turn the crank with the cam no issue. Is this normal or is the cam/rod clearance too small? I couldn't find info on this aside from two threads about a chevy 383 so I assume this is obvious enough to most.
Eagle SIR6000SPLW which i believe are Chevy spec. Had them narrowed for crank fitment and honed for wrist pin press. They're slightly longer than stock Buick ones which makes up for the shorter aftermarket pistons.
no offense. but i got my popcorn warmed up for this r&d trick. but jim and jim will help you out on the 300. 350's are different
Nothing new, the SIR63000 rods have been used in at least 4 engines that I know of. A member in Sweden has these rods and custom pistons in his 350, I know because I sourced the rods and pistons for him. All of these combos worked well with no rod to cam clearance issues. Casper1 was the one who turned us onto this combo 15 years ago. Coincidentally he was the one who had a crank snap in half running 12.04 NA, not related to the rods, the crank snapped in half after a few years as the stock cranks aren’t always up to the task, roll the dice. When spending $2000 plus on rods and pistons plus thousands in machine work the stock crank becomes the wild card. That’s when I had the billet crank made. https://www.v8buick.com/index.php?threads/connecting-rod-selection.139310/#post-1072383
Glad to know its a well tested combination, I was actually recommended them by a very knowledgeable machinist on a general engine building forum. I think eventually when I get forged pistons, likely from DSS, so I can boost the 300, I'll stick with the same rods. Would a billet crank become a necessity at 400-500 flywheel hp then as well?
Hi, no billet crank isn’t needed until 650+ Hp in most cases although I do recommend doing a magniflux and cryogenic treatment on anything for boost.
I've never heard of cryogenically treating engine parts, just looked into it a bit and it seems like the benefits are monumental. Would you say the entire engine should undergo treatment or just the rotating assembly and block prior to boosting? I see that even spark plugs' current flow can be improved through it which is interesting. I wonder how hard it would be to make a setup that slowly lets liquid nitrogen into a closed container to eventually cool the part down to nitrogen's boiling point (-320F). I assume it would destroy a part to simply drop it into the liquid.
I don’t think there is a simple at home method. People have died during cryo operations, I’m not sure of the details but anytime you are making an air space -300 or colder there are risks. Typically blocks, rods, and cranks are likely to be cryo treated. Doing a batch isnt much more cost vs doing one item in most cases. Cryo treating aligns the metals molecules, but should always be done before final machine work as it will alter the metal shape.
Makes sense, I'm definitely not planning on doing home cryo treating any time soon, just a little speculation. So after the treatment, a fresh bore or hone would be necessary I guess, or at least making sure the bores are still in spec, and likely same with the line bores and deck, unless I'm overestimating the deformation the cryo would cause?
