E30 Zone

can the m20 camshaft be replaced whilst the head is still on the engine and in the car?

thanks

Allegedly,yes...

I have swapped one with the head on,but the engine out of the car.

The difficult bit will be drifting the rocker shafts out.
If you have a rumage through the zone wiki,link at the head of the page,you should find an M20 cylinder head re-build guide,the head's off the engine,but you will see what is involved.

^ cheers gov, all sorted now a real PITA it was and a good few hours of labour, also i wont be doing it again in a hurry!?!. I've done it before with the engine out too, but with it in the rocker shafts and cam has to come out the kidney grill lol, but was well worth it as my noisy cam is long gone!!

How did you get the rocker shafts out,please?

I have always used a half inch extension bar and a hammer...but that option is not available with the engine in the car....

in my instance the rockers were free to rotate, once rotated the oil delivery holes are exposed, i then put a screw driver in the hole and turn'd in left'right movement with a forward force and to my luck they came out smoothly. You could also put a allen key in the hole and knock it lightly forward with out damaging the rockers, hope that helps..