darrens07gt
forum member
First of all let me say that I was nervous about installing cams because I never cracked open a motor before. But with the help of this writeup as well as a youtube video entitled "more mustang power with a cam upgrade":
http://home.comcast.net/~cookpaging/hammeron/cams/hotrodcams.html
I decided to give it a shot. I all ready had a decent socket set with extensions so I went shopping for the stuff I didn't have. Here was the list:
Torque wrench $22 (Harbor Freight and Tools)
Breaker Bar $10 (Harbor Freight and Tools)
Garden Hose $7 (Home Depot)
1 QT motor oil $3 (Wal-Mart)
1 black permanant marker $1 (Wal-mart)
With all the above I rolled up my sleeves and went to work. I started with the drivers side and removed the CAI, ignition boots and any cables that were in the way. I did not remove any of the spark plugs. Now in the writeup they tell you about positioning the crankshaft damper to 1 o'clock and then later to 7 o'clock. In the video they skipped this step as well as the steps that use the spring compressor tool and camshaft roller followers. I chose to follow the video here and I skipped those steps.
So once the CAI, cables and boots were out of the way I removed the cam cover and I loosened the bolts in the reverse of the tightening sequence found in the writeup. Once the cover was off I inserted a foot worth of regular garden hose into the timing chain until it was wedged in good and tight. With the black marker I marked the position on the timing chain and then removed the cam phaser bolt and cam position sensor. Very gently and carefully I seperated the sprocket assembly from the camshaft. Now it was just a matter of removing the cam bearing caps. First I stuffed a piece of paper towel into each hole so to prevent any chance of a cam roller follower falling into the head. I started with the center cap and worked my way to the outside ones in order. Once all were out the stock cam came right off and was put to the side.
Now a few cam roller followers did fall out of place so I repositioned them and then soaked the drivers side Hot Rod Cam with engine oil before putting it in place. I inserted the cam into the sprocket assembly and then positioned the cam in place over the cam roller followers being careful not to knock any loose. Now using the torque wrench set to 7.5 Ft Lbs I started re-installing the cam bearing caps starting with the middle cap and working my way to the outside caps. Then I re-set the torque wrench to 30 Ft Lbs and tightened the new cam phaser bolt into the timing chain sprocket. This is where I needed the breaker bar so that I could get that full 90 degrees past the 30 Ft Lb mark without spinning the whole assembly.
With that done I removed my paper towels, removed the hose and re-installed the cam cover using the tightening sequence shown in the writeup. The passenger side was the exact same proceedure other then I had to start by removing the battery and battery tray to get at some of the cam cover bolts. With both cams installed I put the battery, cai and boots back on. With everything cabled up I loaded a brenspeed 93 octane tune and fired the car up.
Now I was very nervous at this point. I was imagining clanking and rattling and a blown up motor. But instead I got a clean startup and a sweet sound coming from my exhaust. The idle was nice and choppy and everything seemed to be working very well. But I did have one complaint. The car was still too quiet. I guess it's the magnaflow chambered mufflers I have. So I removed the bolts in the H-pipe where the rear 02 sensor used to be (essentially creating an exhaust leak on purpose) and WOW did that make the car sound sweet. I could really hear the cams better now.
So I hit the street and took her for a few WOT runs on a back country road. The car pulled HARD and the cams sound amazing. I can really feel the extra power in the upper RPM's. The driveability is good with the Brenspeed tune but when I am coming to a stop and shift into nuetral I did notice there is a surging of rpms from 400 rpm to 1000 rpm. Once I come to a full stop the rpm's will level off at 750. But the car did die twice on me as I was coming to a stop. But that was only twice out of several hours of driving I did over the weekend.
Over all I give the cams an A- and would highly recommend them as well as doing the install yourself to anyone considering either. I'd also like to say a big thanks to Brenspeed for the tune they gave me, to this site and its members for the information it provided me and to my girlfriend who didn't leave me after she smelled the cars new fragrence
http://home.comcast.net/~cookpaging/hammeron/cams/hotrodcams.html
I decided to give it a shot. I all ready had a decent socket set with extensions so I went shopping for the stuff I didn't have. Here was the list:
Torque wrench $22 (Harbor Freight and Tools)
Breaker Bar $10 (Harbor Freight and Tools)
Garden Hose $7 (Home Depot)
1 QT motor oil $3 (Wal-Mart)
1 black permanant marker $1 (Wal-mart)
With all the above I rolled up my sleeves and went to work. I started with the drivers side and removed the CAI, ignition boots and any cables that were in the way. I did not remove any of the spark plugs. Now in the writeup they tell you about positioning the crankshaft damper to 1 o'clock and then later to 7 o'clock. In the video they skipped this step as well as the steps that use the spring compressor tool and camshaft roller followers. I chose to follow the video here and I skipped those steps.
So once the CAI, cables and boots were out of the way I removed the cam cover and I loosened the bolts in the reverse of the tightening sequence found in the writeup. Once the cover was off I inserted a foot worth of regular garden hose into the timing chain until it was wedged in good and tight. With the black marker I marked the position on the timing chain and then removed the cam phaser bolt and cam position sensor. Very gently and carefully I seperated the sprocket assembly from the camshaft. Now it was just a matter of removing the cam bearing caps. First I stuffed a piece of paper towel into each hole so to prevent any chance of a cam roller follower falling into the head. I started with the center cap and worked my way to the outside ones in order. Once all were out the stock cam came right off and was put to the side.
Now a few cam roller followers did fall out of place so I repositioned them and then soaked the drivers side Hot Rod Cam with engine oil before putting it in place. I inserted the cam into the sprocket assembly and then positioned the cam in place over the cam roller followers being careful not to knock any loose. Now using the torque wrench set to 7.5 Ft Lbs I started re-installing the cam bearing caps starting with the middle cap and working my way to the outside caps. Then I re-set the torque wrench to 30 Ft Lbs and tightened the new cam phaser bolt into the timing chain sprocket. This is where I needed the breaker bar so that I could get that full 90 degrees past the 30 Ft Lb mark without spinning the whole assembly.
With that done I removed my paper towels, removed the hose and re-installed the cam cover using the tightening sequence shown in the writeup. The passenger side was the exact same proceedure other then I had to start by removing the battery and battery tray to get at some of the cam cover bolts. With both cams installed I put the battery, cai and boots back on. With everything cabled up I loaded a brenspeed 93 octane tune and fired the car up.
Now I was very nervous at this point. I was imagining clanking and rattling and a blown up motor. But instead I got a clean startup and a sweet sound coming from my exhaust. The idle was nice and choppy and everything seemed to be working very well. But I did have one complaint. The car was still too quiet. I guess it's the magnaflow chambered mufflers I have. So I removed the bolts in the H-pipe where the rear 02 sensor used to be (essentially creating an exhaust leak on purpose) and WOW did that make the car sound sweet. I could really hear the cams better now.
So I hit the street and took her for a few WOT runs on a back country road. The car pulled HARD and the cams sound amazing. I can really feel the extra power in the upper RPM's. The driveability is good with the Brenspeed tune but when I am coming to a stop and shift into nuetral I did notice there is a surging of rpms from 400 rpm to 1000 rpm. Once I come to a full stop the rpm's will level off at 750. But the car did die twice on me as I was coming to a stop. But that was only twice out of several hours of driving I did over the weekend.
Over all I give the cams an A- and would highly recommend them as well as doing the install yourself to anyone considering either. I'd also like to say a big thanks to Brenspeed for the tune they gave me, to this site and its members for the information it provided me and to my girlfriend who didn't leave me after she smelled the cars new fragrence
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