Confirmed today,wiped exhaust lobe. Dont want to pull motor to replace. For guys that have been through this, if radiator and support are removed can it be done w/motor in car. All help, tricks/tips, involving this job greatly appreciated. Thanks

 

Absolutely! I don't know who the dummy is that said you have to pull the engine, buts its not true. Why make more work for yourself? If someone says its easier to pull the engine, they are full of shet.

The tricky parts are the radiator & shroud. With the fan belts off, remove clutch fan. Loosen shroud and lay it on the waterpump snout for now. Then remove the rad, then remove the shroud.

If you have A/C, the condenser can also stay, but remove the upper bracket bolts and pull the condenser forward about two inches. I recall placing a block of wood in there to hold it forward.

When pulling the cam, fuelpump pushrod does not have to come out, just let it slide down to the F.P mounting plate. Remove timing chain set. Now put the cam sprocket back on with one bolt. Use the sprocket for leverage to gently remove the cam. As the sprocket nears the A/C condenser, remove the sprocket, grab the cam with one hand. And by the way, the core support is left untouched.
One last thing. Take a Sharpie and scribe a line around the hood hinge, on the hood itself. Get a helper to remove the two hinge bolts on one side while you remove the others. Gently remove the hood and store it on its cowl edge. Things will be a whole lot easier later.
If you have an automatic this is a great time to add a tranny cooler in front of the A/C condenser. Worry about the trans hose routing later.

 

 

Duke remembered, I forgot. Both timing dots at "NOON", cyl numero uno. (not 6)

 

If you lost a lobe I would cut open your oil filter to see how many metal shavings are in it.I would also drain the
oil and check it for particles there too.Hopefully the filter got all the shavings and your bearings are still good.
I would be major bummer but I would want to know before all the work is done and find out you are going to need to tear it down.

 

x2. If you see a lot of copper on the cam bearings may as well tear it down. You dont want to try and replace those with the engine in.
If you are not a good wrench yes you can pull the motor in less time. Been around the block then sure leave it in the car.
Im surprised (another thread discussing this) why shops feel the need to charge 100 friggin dollars an hour to work on something as basic as an sbc
Everyones gotta make $ but thats getting stuck with a corncob and a punch in the face.


.

 

oil pan off. clean out oil pump pickup. one detail. fuel pump must come off. and then there are the valvesprings that have to match the cam.

 

Pulling the engine will never ever be less labor, less time, that is impossible.
Separate bellhousing. Support trans wt.
Separate torq cnvtr
Disconnect either clutch linkage or trans cooling lines..
Remove trans dipstick.
Loosen both motor mounts.
Remove all wiring to engine.
Disconnect exhaust system.
How in the hell is all that faster? None of the above is needed just to pull the cam. Ridiculous old wives tale made up by people who like to do everything the hard way.

 

You must be a good wrench.


If his cam bearings are no good he will pull it anyways, no choice there.

I can pull the engine on this hooptie in a few hours, hand tools only with minimal accessories, no AC in the way etc. No lift or helper
Cheating with the hood on

No way would a cam change happen that quick, at least for me. If it did guaranteed it would probably be a leaky rush job
. Youd think it would be quicker not so...but changed too many cams in it and too many motors over the years.

C3 harder to work on in general.

 

On a C3, the Rad & Shroud are the worst obstacles for cam pulling. The rest is easy.

 

If a cam lobe wiped, there is metal throughout the oil galleys and in the bearings. Not only does the motor need to come out, it needs to be completely disassembled.

Lars

 

I disagree in this case. OP says wiped one lobe. Filter would catch that small amount.

 

When the 307s came out they were notorious for loosing cam lobes. GMs cam replacement only allowed time for cam only replacement, no engine R&R was allowed. T

 

My 1980 vette with A/C wiped a lobe on the way back to college back in 1994...
I put a CAM in the car in the fraternity house parking lot... It took 5-6 hours and no I didn't remove the engine.

 

I did mine too without pulling the engine a few month ago. with the radiator out of the way, there is tons of space. And... you do not need to unbolt the engine mounts to drop the pan to free the timing chain cover

 

I've done it both ways. Vette's are pretty easy to pull the engine from and there is no doubt it will be a nicer/cleaner job done on a stand. Gives you time to clean everything up and paint it a little.

But as mentioned..if you just want to get it going...then you can do it pretty easily in the car. You take the chance of whatever metal went through it. Might want to block bypass on oil filter to make sure everything goes through filter and change it a few times. As Lars alluded to....even with one lobe wiped out...you just took a thimble full of iron dust and poured it in the oil to circulate continuously everywhere. I mean EVERY single passage and between pistons and walls, bearings, valve guides, trapped under valve springs.

I worked at a Chevy dealer doing warranty work years ago. Trust me...how repairs are made are NOT in your best interest. It's whatever it takes to make it through warranty and they are willing to take a chance that only a few will fail again within that period. Has nothing to do with whether it's a proper repair or not.

You can do it by loosening front of pan, then trim the timing cover edges and pop it back in place. Or do it the right way and drop pan, replace gaskets (might as well do rear main seal too), clean likely timing gear plastic chunks from pickup tube...ck a couple of bearings etc. See how this goes? It's just so much easier on a stand where you can do all of this correctly and easily.

I never pull radiator or shroud on my C2..even with big block when pulling engine. I can have engine out quicker than I can mess with all of that stuff!

JIM