How is it done. Going to be doing a head cam swap myself but have no idea how it is done or what tools are needed. Could I bring it to a shop with a trailer have it done then finish her up at home?

 

I'm pretty sure your talking about clearancing the pistons to not hit the valves. Pistons need to come out for this adventure.. Not something your doing at home.

 

Call LG. They will rent you the tools and everything you need to do the job. Yes you can do it yourself. It takes a lot of time but you can do it.

^ and no the pistons do NOT need to come out for this.

 

Thanks schpenxel thats what I wanted to hear. I'll have to give them a call for the tools.

 

pistons do not have to come out

 

yep

 

If you can do the head cam swap yourself you can notch the pistons. It is time consuming but a fairly easy process. I got lots of photos and can supply you with a pretty good step by step guide on how to do it. LG does rent the tools to do this, if you can get them to send them to you! They screwed me big time on that deal! I ended up buying my own tools from Thunder Racing and bought an old set of LS1 heads for my guide. The total cost was not much lot over what LG wanted for rent, just wish I didn't wait on LG for a month.

 

 

How much do the tools cost to purchase? If I go with a cam with a 112 lsa I will have to cut the pistions correct?

 

You can cut them in place using a jig. Scary but doable.

 

If you can't get the tools in time from a sponsor, pm me, I have a setup I can get to you.

 

Thanks ArKay99 I havent even order a head/cam set up let, stilll thinking how big I want to go. Have you done it before? What do you have in your car?

 

Check sig

 

I wouldnt flycut pistons myself because if they do not have the same dish displacement your cylinders will all vary in compression. IMHO

 

not if done right... you're bearly taking off any material anyways..it'd be nearly impossible to be off more than 1cc or so

 

can anybody post a pic's of these tools' ????

 

Yep

Here is the result, these are .080 cuts at the far deep end. Normally you only have to notch the intake, but I did both while it was apart. I wanted to play with cam timing some day and wanted lots of room to play.



This is the intake cutter tool in the head. Since LG screwed me on the tool, I had to buy a used set of LS1 heads to use as the holder. I did clean up the heads before I used them!




On the last two valves in the back you will need an angle drill to clear under the windshield. All others I used a standard Milwaukee cordless drill. Notice the collar around the pilot just above the valve guide. You can adjust this to the height you want and as long as all the guides are the same in the head you will get the same results. That seems to be fairly close but I didn't trust them. I set it a little short them pulled the head and measured, reinstalled the head and touched it just a bit to get exactly .080 deep cuts. Fairly slow speed and light pressure is all you need, they cut pretty fast, just don't let them chatter. If they start to chatter just apply a little more pressure or change the speed just a bit.




This is the cutter itself. The pilot is a ground shaft the size of a valve stem with an end that looks like a 1/4" extension. It snaps into the back of the cutter much like an extension in a socket. Factory these cutter have a square corner on the backside. I have no idea why they build the cutter that way but normally you have to remove the seats from a old head to use the cutter. I chucked my cutter in a lathe and ground (they are very hard, probably too hard to cut) off the corner at a 45 degree angle just like a valve. This way the cutter will fit up into the head without removing the seats. I have not idea why they don't put a 45 on the back of the tool at the factory.

 

Now there is a deal since you two are in the same state! The worst part of renting a tool is shipping that big heavy head to and from!

 

Nice pics Speedy. Just trying to help a forum brother out. I actually used one of my old heads and had the shop that milled my AFR's cut the seats in my old head. I actually have three different size cutters and two axles so I can set the depth once for each valve and never have to reset the collar. They were all within .002". I used a hand tap handle and twisted mine by hand. I guess I'm old fashioned.

 

Not necissarily.

What are the full specs of your cam and (if applicable), your heads, the amount they've been milled, and gasket thickness?

LSA alone is not an indicator of p/v clearance, and only comes into play on the largest of cams. There are cams with even 106 lsa that have tons of p/v clearance.
"Most" popular cams marketed to LSx engines by the big name tuners don't require flycutting..but again, there's a lot of variables and it depends on your exact setup.