cams - dilema

[JCB]

heres my dilema - my track car engine is totally fooked. big bang and lots of smoke at croft last week. i finally got the head off and oh my word what a bloody mess. looks like a small car bomb has gone off in my engine bay. i think a piston has cracked or conrod bearing failed but basically there is a large hole in the liner of numer 2 pot, the piston and valves as just a few lumps of shrapnel, various bits of engine have got sucked up through the inlet manifold and back into other chambers. and the head is fooked !!! (this was a new casting only 1 month ago )

anyway - the old engine is fitted with a schrick cam. not sure which but guess its a 288. the "new" engine is a stock 325. i am a bit reluctant to remove the head to put this cam in as i think splitting the head from the block might lead me to problems in the future (having had one head split on me i dont want to tempt fate). the new engine is a low mileage (c 30k) unit bought from another zoner and was a rebuild by a main dealer in 1998 (the block is stamped with "96".

so what do i do - accept less power and learn to drive on a track better
thus compensating for the drop in power with faster driving or take a risk and put the cam in. the old engine was in the region of 190bhp. only other mods were cone filter with cold air feed and chipped.

your opinions would be greatly appreciated...thanks.

[stuartgallafant]

just put the cam in! owning a track car is gonna cost you money and shit like this will happen alot!

just go for it, and when you rebuild the engine, do it properly!!

[dazleeds]

surely if your taking the engine out to swap it over
youll be able to change the cam without removing the heads??

or am i wrong??

[JCB]

i think you need to take the head off the block to change the cam. unless i am wrong ??

[dazleeds]

i was gonna take the cam out of my 325 before i sold it recently
and was told all u have to do is lift the engine so it will physicaly slide out

worth double checking but im 99% sure its easy to do with the engine out and wouldnt need to remove the head

sure someone can confirm this

Daz

[Templ8e30]

It is indeed possible to change the cam without removing the head.

Normally you need to lift the engine off its mountings to clear the front panel but obviously this won't apply in your case.

The awkward bit is pulling it out, slacken off all the rocker eccentrics and carefully rotate the cam whilst withdrawing it.

Or make up 2 steel plates like I did. Holes drilled in the plates to bolt them to the rocker studs and holes drilled/tapped M4 at an angle to push all the rockers down together so the cam just slides out.

If you need it I'll post the plates to you at cost as long as you send them back afterwards, they'll save all the hassle.

Cheers,

Iain T

[Ant]

Or make up 2 steel plates like I did. Holes drilled in the plates to bolt them to the rocker studs and holes drilled/tapped M4 at an angle to push all the rockers down together so the cam just slides out.

If you need it I'll post the plates to you at cost as long as you send them back afterwards, they'll save all the hassle.

Cheers,

Iain T

Good efort Iain T ! thats a proper zoner

back on topic... the 288/288 cam must have the correct valve springs or it will bind, so swopping the cam only is probably not viable in this case

[JCB]

i can transfer the rocker springs from my old head. what about anything else - valves, rockers etc are they different ?? is it best to upgrade ??