I have a 72 L48 with AC and was wondering if I would have enough room to change out my cam if I only removed my radiator??

 

KJL,
I did mine over the winter in my '80 and was able to rotate the condensor out of the way enough to change the cam. Hope this helps.

 

Ditto what fognozl said, except that I did also remove my radiator support, which needed a little restoration anyway. I believe removing the radiator support made it a little easier to tilt the A/C condensor, which I held in place by wiring it to the hood hinge mechanism.

 

Yes.

:cool:

 

Jeff,
I noticed the mods you did to your engine, I would like to do same. How do you like? I am considering going to the Edelbrock alum heads. I am not looking to build a racing engine, just want to pep mine up a bit without having to mess with the torgue converter etc....

 

Pics of my cam change. http://www.bokonon.net/corvette/cam1.html

good luck
-terry

 

KJL,

The mods that I did to the engine have worked out great. Much, much more seat of the pants power. Before the mods the engine felt flat after 3500 rpms. Now it still has good low rpm torque and just keeps pulling stronger all the way to 5500. (thats as far as I have ever taken it, feels as if it could easily go farther though). All the info that I got from everyone on the forum was right on. The 268H is about the biggest cam I would want to go with my 4speed and stock 3.07 gears. Anymore would be a pain in town. The Dynomax headers look good and fit like a dream, but the stock paper gaskets leaked, no more problems after using Mr. Gasket copper gaskets with Stage 8 locking bolts. Changing the timing advance curve also made a big difference. The only mod that I'm not happy about are the poly-graphite a-arm bushings because they creak a little bit even though I took all the precautions that everyone suggested. I went with the electric fans to free up room for the shock tower speader bar, free up a little more hp, and so that I wouldn't have to mess with that :boxing fan shroud ever again. If I had had the extra cash at the time I would have gone with the aluminum heads also, but it just wasn't in the budget with everything else I was doing. Had to stop somewhere I guess :cheers: We are so lucky to have this forum, the wealth of knowledge here is unbelievable. Good luck with your 72, those chrome bumper cars are beautiful!

 

KJL

As stated above, you can do it by rotating the condenser out of the way. I did this same swap on my 72 in June. Do not try to pull the cam out without rotating the condenser out of the way. It looks like the cam will almost come out, but the last bearing journal will not clear the front of the block before the pin for the timing gear hits the condenser. Just have a friend rotate the condenser up, towards the pass side of the car and the cam will slide directly under it. Good luck with your fan shroud, it's a B to get out.

 

I hear alot of bad things about the fan shroud, but on my 72 L-48 it comes right out. It looks like at some point somebody cut a small notch on the bottom. With the fan out, it slides right over the pully with no problem.

My biggest worry is getting the hood off and back on correctly.

 

KJL: You said "My biggest worry is getting the hood off and back on correctly"

Unless I'm missing something here, there is no need to remove your hood to replace the camshaft, I pulled the radiator, radiator support, and replaced the camshaft without removing the hood on my '81.

 

I very nearly cut the same notch in mine, but managed to get it out without cutting an other wise perfectly good shroud.

 

Can I still move the condenser around with the hood in place?

 

Yes, you can move the A/C condensor out of the way with the hood still on, at least that's what I did with my camshaft change, and had no problems at all. You kind of tilt the condensor up, then I simply used some wire to hold it there by wiring it to the hood hinges.

 

Great!!!! That is one thing I don't have to be concerned with!!
What I would like to do this winter is the following:

1) install Comp Cam 260H or 268H cam
2) Comp Cams roller chain set
3) New 1.5 ratio rocker arms
4) New Comp Cam push rods
5) Comp Cam hydrolic lifters
6) Edelbrock Performer Intake
7) Edelbrock Performer Aluminum Heads (maybe)
8) Headers (Maybe) Not sure what kind. I currently have stock Ram's horn cast manifolds 2" diameter that go into a 2 1/2" Flowmaster system.
9) Electric Fans (maybe)
10) Win the lottery (absolutely!!)