changing cam without taking head off

[1971vitesse]

Hi all

Is it possible to take the cam out of a 2 litre vitesse and replace it without taking the head off?
Cheers
David

[thescrapman]

Yes, but you need 12 strong magnets.

Cheers

Colin

[Deleted User]

David

I would be extremely cautious about this as your old followers potentially will destroy the new cam

The followers wear to the shape of cam lobe and visa versa so replacing the old cam but not the followers has the potential for everything to go pear shaped ? bit like the lobes of the new cam!!!!

For the sake of £40 for a set of followers & £15 for a head gasket is it worth knackering a new camshaft???

Also what is paramount is 'bedding in' of the new cam - again if this were a 'dry' build liberal coatings of cam lube or gearbox oil can be applied to the cam/followers - again this is more difficult to ensure that this is achieved with the head on

[Straight Six]

davesideways wrote:

Yes pull the head for sake of the followers :)

Dave is, of course, right.

However, if you REALLY don't want to take the head off I have managed to do this job by using an old wire coat hanger. Cut it up into 12 pieces and bend the end of each piece into a U shape, this goes into the follower. Bend the other end so it hooks over the side of the head.  

As you can imagine, it's a bit of a fuss really when you consider how easy it is to take a head off of one of our cars, and if you knock one of the followers as you are pulling the cam out (a distinct possibility) then you've got fun & games with a magnet and a bit of string......

[Nick Jones]

To change the cam without changing the followers should only be the last resort of a desperate man.

As mentioned above the cam and followers 'bed-in' together within the first few minutes of running and don't welcome change.  Plus, without removing them, by lifting the head(!), you can't see whether the critical surfaces are sound or not.

Question is, are you that desperate?  

Nick

[Nick Jones]

SpitBang wrote:

If you can pull the cam followers up using a magnet and/or wire/long finger, you can sit them on your bench out of harms way. If you can, number them so if your old camshaft is used again the followers can remain matched to the camshaft.

Unfortunately the holes in the head are not large enough to allow the followers to be withdrawn through them :-/

Also worth noting that it is quite a challenge to feed the cam horizontally into the block through the various close fitting bearing holes without chipping bearing or cam surfaces without being to get inside to support the other end.  Tricky enough on the shorter 4 cyl - must be a real pain on a 6 cyl.  Suggest nice long bolts or studding screwed into the sprocket bolt holes to provide a handle with enough leverage to hold the cam up in a straight line when you've only got a short stub left sticking out of the engine.

Cheers

Nick

[1971vitesse]

thanks all for the direction.  I was just dredding removing the carbs, exhaust manifold etc if there was an easier way to do it.  

I think I will take the head off to be on the safe side.  The reason the cam is coming out is I had a NOS cam fitted but turns out its not for a mk2 Vitesse as it has a lighter lift and doesnt idle great.  I am going to replace the original cam after checking various dimensions for wear etc.  

To be honest I have no idea if the followers were replaced with the new cam.  Does it matter wear I buy new followers from?  Is the quality the same no matter which suppplier they come from?

cheers
David