I'm trying to take the cam out of my '93 LT1. It will come out as far as the crossmember, gets about half way over it and then binds. Did I forget to do something?

I did notice there was a plate lining the innerwall of where the cam shaft comes out of, do I need to remove this? Or is there something else I missed? Or am I just not using enough brute force?

PLEASE HELP! Thanks.

 

Don't use alot of force. You might just be getting stuck on one of the lobes. Just rotate it a bit as your pulling it out. You need to pull it out staight, it's a tight fit.

 

Rich,
Mine did the same thing. What I did was take the long horizontal bolt out of the drivers side engine mount. Then I placed a 2x4 up through from under the car until it touched the bottom of the engine mount. Placed a jack under the 2x4 and jacked the engine slightly until the cam would clear the cross member. It was the pretty tight, but it will work. I hope this helps and be VERY careful not to nick the bearings. The cam should come right out with some rotating and slight pulling. It should not require any PULLING. If this is happening something is not right. Might be a stupid question, but you did pull the distributer, right? Also you say that something is coming out? I hope you are not talking about the front cam bearing! That would not be good. If you can take a picture of the plate or whatever you are talking about that would be best. Good luck and take your time. If you gaul up one of those bearing, you will be in for a nightmare! Just remember, slight outward pressure, try to keep it from dropping down inbetween bearing and keep rotating. It will slide right out. Reverse the process for putting it back in. I recommend getting some threaded rod as i did and use it as a handle. When you get it back in 2/3 of the way it will drop down between the bearing for the last time and unless your alot stronger that me (and i doubt that :lol: ) you will have a hell of a time trying to lift it up and guide it without the handle. Good luck. Make sure you use alot of assembly lube too! :cheers:

 

Well, I put a 2x4 next to one of the engine mounts and lowered the car, it worked!, I got the cam out. However, I did notice some metal shards that were on the cam. I think these were from the cam itself when I tried to get it out the first time. What else could have left these?

 

The simple answer is ANYTHING!

Are you tearing down the bottom end too? If so, it should become pretty obvious. At the least, I'd remove your oil pan and do a thorough bottom end inspection. You should have some filings down there as well, particularly if the damage occurred before you started pulling the cam.

I'm stroking an L98 right now. The only thing I found when I took it apart was a broken piston ring on the #2 cylinder. No damage to the wall though. I thought I may have done it when I was pulling the piston, but on close inspection the break looked fairly old. Not bad for a 105K mile engine I guess!

Good luck with yours.

 

I've taken all the stuff off the engine that I'm going to. I don't think any of the shards would have gotten to the bottom of the oil pan, so I'm not sure it would be worth it. I guess I'll have to trust my luck and see what kind of learning experience it becomes.

 

Just hope it was not cam bearnig from removing the cam.

 

Stuntman is right. Could be ANYTHING. The cam is hard. The cam bearings are soft. Check the shards with a magnet. I'm voting for cam bearing. Chances are that the edge of a cam lobe scraped some material off of a cam bearing. Use a light and mirror to check the cam bearing condition. Hopefully, they're not hurt badly enough to require replacement. Remember, the cam only turns at half crank speed.

 

Glad the 2x4 trick worked for you too. I am a bit concerned about the shards....Like someone already said..the cam is HARD and it did not come off that most likely...I would say you scored the cam bearing..perhaps you just took some off the "side" of it. I don't know what that would do..Just check everything out and let us know what you find. Good luck.