I was at my machine shop today getting some work done on my head. While he was working on it he said that the distributor cam cap, was broken(the one that hold the end of the cam down, and holds the distributor). He then told me that the cam caps are not interchangeable from head to head. I will be running a bigger cam, upgraded valve train, higher compression, and and need to know just how serious of a problem this is for me.

 

Depends, if only the tower is broken and you only want to run 2 dizzy bolts....then no problem. Otherwise it is an issue. You can either buy a new head or a new cap and have it line bored.

 

I may have to find a place that does the line-bore for me. My machinist says that he doesn't have the tooling to do it

 

Hes right. The cam caps are machined to the head and should not be interchanged...However, I am guilty of using mismatched cam caps(before i knew better) in the past with no problems.I did plastiguage them though. Im sure many people will claim that its no problem and youll be fine, which you may very well be. BUT to do it right they should be line honed to ensure a perfect bore...
How is the cam cap broken? Theres no way to repair it or weld it?

 

I just don't want to snap a cam and ruin all the work I'm putting in right now.