My local shop quoted me about 6 hours of labor at $70 an hour so Im thinking about installing my cams, valve springs, and retainers myself. After that I could drive down to the shop and get them to tune it all on a dyno.

 

well make sure you have a torque wrench and know all the torque specs for the various nuts. personally unless you know exactly what youre doing, i wouldnt do it myself. find someone in the area who has experience with it. if you want to do the valve springs and retainers you have to pull the head...once again something that requires some experience. that is why they quoted you 6 hours labor. cams alone would only take about 1.5

 

http://www.c-speedracing.com

they have a how to cam section
sounds a looks easy, but never tried....

 

cams arent really hard IF u know what u are doing (and i stress if... not "i think i know what im doing) same with valvespring/retainers... personally... id take the head off to do it though... i dont trust myself and those damn oil return holes! that said... everything on the motor is really easy... there is nothing really "difficult"... u just have to know what u are doing

 

Well I have a helm manual so that should help me out a lot but I want to hear from someone who's done it.

 

just get a good manual all the necessary tools, good torque wrench, give yourself more time then necessary, don't rush and you will be fine...use common sense

also if you get the shop to do it, get other thing upgrade which are part of the system...

 

Well I just did my first cam install a couple days ago. And let me just say this. I really dont have that much experience working on cars. I had a friend who had done it several times before help and show what needed to be done. If he wasnt there I surely would have done it wrong.

Just remember to take your time and torque everything to spec. I heard way too many horror stories of people snapping bolts. So make sure that the engine is cool before you start doing anything.

 

oh... and make sure u put the caps on the cams the right way...

 

Cams are easy..springs/retainers are a pain in the ***.
Well theyre arent that bad..just make sure you have teh right tools! Very important!

Also...here's a good tip! Stuff the oil return holes with paper towels so that nothing falls down there! I lost a keeper by not stuffing the holes.

 

Anyone do this themself?

 

The hardest part is getting the cam gears off the cams. Make sure to put the cam bearing caps exactly where they were. Make sure you line your car up at TDC at the crankshaft. You want to verify that the cam gear marks are pointing right at each other. Make sure you get a torque wrench that has inch lbs. Those little cam bolts strip very easily with too much torque.

If this is your only car , and this is your first time, I don't recommend you doing it. Maybe have someone work with you that has done it before to help assist you.

 

i would steer clear of any shop that tells you it will take them 6 hours to install cams (only). even cams, springs and retainers shouldn't take that long. btw, which cams/springs/retainers into what car?

 

if you take off the head...and install cams/springs/retainers...that would be under 6 hours?

 

no... it would more than likely be over or around there... but u dont need to take the head off

 

thank you.