anyone have experience changing cams. would i be better having it done by professionals. i done cam changes before on older cars but a little leary about removing steering components. do you need a lift to make it go easier. any tips appreciated.

 

you plan on doing the required tuning yourself? if not, i would have a pro do it. no reason to risk it with a $50k car man. just my .02

 

i was thinking of taking it to get tuned after i changed the cam. have a couple good tuners close by within an hour.

 

I DID A HEAD AND CAM SWAP ON MY 06 C6 AND IT TOOK ME 2 DAYS! THE ONLY HARD THING WAS GETTING THAT SHROUD OUT BEHIND THE RADIATOR ALSO THE CRANK BOLT! EVERTHING ELSE WAS REAL EASY! SOME GUYS TOLD ME TO REMOVE THE RACK BUT I UNBOLTED AND MOVED IT JUST A HAIR!!

 

that sounds a lot better than removing the rack and unbolting suspension components like most tech articles tell you to do. the article in corvette magazine this month makes it sound like a nightmare. thanks . anybody else tried just unbolting the rack ?

 

CYAVETTE has a writeup on this, quite detailed and based on real experience. PM him for a copy - or I can send you one, but it might be best to get it straight from the source with any updates. And maybe we can get this posted in the FAQs.

 

I've done several head/cam swaps on the C6. There are primarily 2 methods to do this. First off swapping the heads is pretty straight forward. The only tip I have is to take the water pump off before you try and loosen the alt bracket. Its much easier with the pump off. Earlier a poster had asked if you can swap heads leaving the bracket hanging in the car. My initial thought was why would you want to do that it would be in the way etc... I have a C6 apart in my garage and during the head only portion I tried to leave the bracket in the car and it actually worked just fine. So, I am retracting my why leave the bracket in comment, and going with, hell, leave it in, doesn't matter.
Now, for the camshaft portion. You will need to remove the radiatior. I have taken the a/c condenser out and also left it in. You can leave the condenser in and the a/c system in tact with no problems. You do need to remove the shroud to give you enough wiggle room to get the camshaft out. But, I'm getting ahead of myself. The real issue is removing the harmonic balancer. The steering rack is in the way. For those that said they just unbolted it and moved it slightly I don't see it. I could not get enough room. You do not need to remove the rack, just slide it towards the passenger side until you get enough clearance to remove the balancer. You remove the tie rods ends and the 2 bolts on each side of the rack. I like to remove the hard line into the rack just to make it easier to slide. You only have to remove one line. You will see which one when you look at it. The other method I have used is to lower the k-member. You support the engine with a hoist, then unbolt the mounts and k-member. The rack stays in place and it will fall enough to get the balancer clear. You do have to watch the brake lines and remove some of the suspension to get it to drop far enough. Its not fun, but its not as bad as people make it out. This is of course not a comprehensive guide to doing the swap... just a few comments.

 

Yes, all on the same C6 against your will.