Dialing in the cam,Help!

[Anonymous]

Today I tried to put my 200 back together. I as of Saterday installed a new cam, but when I checked the intake center line 4 times in a row I discovered that it was 24 degrees off no joke. Every thing was lined up correctly; I even had another more experienced person check it. In case your wondering it's comp cams #65-235-4. I tried jumping one tooth after calling the cam hotline and that dropped the difference down to 7.5 degrees. The only thing I can think of is to put an offset key in the crank. So far I can't find anyone who has an offset key for my engine. This engine is in my daily driver and I needed it back together as of tomorrow. Any advice is much appreciated!

 

[80broncoman]

On most cams sold in the last 20 years do not have the same ramp on both sides of the lobe. Meaning that the max lift may be or may not the center of the lobe.
It is much more accurate to degree the cam by the opening and closing events at .050 tappet lift. Just be sure that you are measuring directly off the tappet its self or the pushrod is exactly straight paralell with it when measuring tappet lift. I don't know how many teeth are on the gears so I can't tell you how many degrees each one is. And also all degrees on the cam card are in crank degrees. Hope this helps
Jim

 

[addo]

Did you do TDC with the dead stop method? I can't see you getting 7½° with a key offset - too much!

Also, silly question: Any chance the crank gear is on backward?

 

[mugsy]

I forgot which brand of cam I put in, but it was off by that amount too. I was lucky though, I had bought an adjustable timing chain from AzCoupe/FSPP (Mike). Maybe I didn't degree it correctly, but my technique seemed OK.

Anway... my recomendation it to call Mike ASAP and see if he has any timing chains left, and then pay the extra for FedEx overnight (NOT UPS, I hate them with a passion! ). You should have it tomorrow. I would think that one extra day without your car is better than buttoning it all back up wrong. And only to fix it later...

Mugsy

 

[Anonymous]

Yes I did use the TDC dead stop method and everything is on the correct way . I used the method described in comp cams instructional video for checking the cam timing; I'm pretty sure they drilled the pin hole in the wrong spot. I went ahead and ordered the dual roller timing set, and I pulled out the old trusty bike to get me around until it arrives. Next time I'm gonna tear the motor down for something, I'm going to give my self an extra week of time in case something like this happens instead of the two extra days I planned in my schedule. Gotta roll with the punches .

 

[AzCoupe]

Got your order, I'll ship it out tomorrow.

 

[mugsy]

MIKE ROCKS!!!!!

 

[nitrousnick]

hi, I built my share of engines most of them were modified.I check all the performance cams ,I made the mistake once and installed the cam one tooth advanced-but acording to the way I checked it the cam timing was right.I thought the timing gear was marked wrong,but after months of adjusting and trying different things I took it back apart.Now the only way I check the cam is intake center line.Im not saying anybodys wrong but this is the way I do it.Put the dialindicator on the intake side,bring it up to max lift ,set indicator to zero go .050 past max lift,read the degree wheel write it down now go back to .050 before max lift,read the wheel,add the two numbers together and divide by two - this is your intake center line -for example my comp cam card says to install it at 106 degree,some may say 108 .I have never seen any cam off by more than 2 degrees + or - . Take your time make sure your T.D.C. is exact ,There is know way your cam is indexed that far off.and if you decide to move your cam that much and it ends up being wrong you will know it.

 

[Anonymous]

I used the intake center line method just as you explained. I know it is way off because the intake was open by a little more than .1 at the lifter when the piston still had about 1/4" of more travel to TDC. I lined up the the the dots on the timing sprockets had them pointing right at each other when I found it to be initially 24 off. I used the same timing set that the old cam used and that cam ran fine except for the noisy lifter so the problem has to lie in the new cam. Oh, and if I have to open it back up to adjust it's not that big of a deal I have air tools and a 80 gallon compressor . Not to trying to brag or anything, but I had the engine apart with in 15 min's.

 

[Anonymous]

I got it back together today using the new double roller timing set, was a little tricky getting it on without removing the oil pan. I got the timing spot on the first try I jumped one tooth on the cam sprocket and advanced four degrees on the crank which yielded 107 for the intake center line. That was as close as it was going to get and good enough for me. After that I buttoned it up and started it; one problem though there is now a strange ticking coming from about where the new timming set it. I think I'll have to tear it down and investigate, anyone else had this happen before? No it's not a valve ticking I know what that sounds like it has more of a hollow sound to it. At first I thought it was the impeller on my water pump hitting something. After removing the belt it still remained though.

Mike you are awsome!

 

[Lazy JW]

I have seen fuel pumps make noises like that. Can you temporarily remove it for a test? An outboard motor fuel tank works great for tests like this.
Joe

 

[Anonymous]

The noise seems to deffinitly be coming from the front of the engine, but I will try that to eliminate the possibility. The noise is very loud too I can hear it over my exhaust and I have a chery bomb . I have to keep it together until atleast thursday to get me to school, I'm a little leary about driving it like that though. It's going to come apart this weekend for inspection hopefully nothing breaks until then.