tuckerwilliam

Hey, I'm f'in fired up I bought Na$TY T@'s comp 212 218 114LSA 522 529 cam and a set of 918 springs for one hellova deal because he's buying some 383 heads and needs some bread...good for me, good for him! Anyway, he used the stock retainers with his setup. What I'm wondering is should I go ahead and upgrade retainers, or would my stock ones be alright because this is a pretty mild cam? Thoughts on this? Also, I'm looking for a good tool, good being the key word here, to change out the springs. I don't care to spend a little money to make life easier and safer if the tool works like it should; I saw one on here somewhere but can't seem to find the bastige anymore! Is there a "how to" somewhere around here on changing cams and springs, I can't find or haven't seen one and since this will be my first cam install, I need to have all the info. I can get. I'm pretty good at mechanics and have most tools ever made, so if I take my time and have good directions I'm pretty confident I can do this without any problems. I plan on having my heads P&P'ed later on and prolly should have this done at the same time, but I would go nuts with this thing sitting around until I get the $$ to do the head job and the time to get over to Bowling Green! Anyway, if y'all can give any direction or hints/tricks/tips I'd be much obliged!!!

1BADHD

Damn.....I was tryinng to come up with the money. Never could. You got a helluva deal!

Yelo

The best trick I have EVER seen to change out valve springs is: feed enough 3/8" soft cotton rope into the cylinder via the sparkplug hole to fill the chamber up (anywhere between 6" and 36" depending on piston position), once you can't feed it in anymore use a WOODEN tool (dowel) to push just a little more in there....it will fill the combustion chamber up so when you remove the retainer the valve won't drop (or if it does it will only be a .1-.2" drop....it will still leave enough of the valve above the guide to get the spring on).....This trick REALLY works !!....just make sure that you can pull the rope out without it bunching up, and you DON'T have to PACK it in the chamber.....just fill the chamber up gently, the valve isn't heavy and will sit on top of the rope for a LONG TIME before the rope starts to compress

The other trick I have seen used is a balloon (really !!!)....just stuff one of those industrial strength (Whippit type) balloons into the chamber and inflate it by stretching the end over a 12v air-pump.....it's MUCH safer than just compressed air and is VERY easy to do

tuckerwilliam

Yeah man, I had just missed out on a deal down in the regular classifieds that had another cam I was wanting but without springs, then I said "DAmn, I always miss out on the killer deals!!" SO, the next day I'm looking for someplace to order one and BAM!!! I find this deal and e-mail Kyle thinking that someone HAS TO have snatched them up at the $250 price he was asking! But, nope, he says he'll send them over to me for that and I'm f'in stoked!!! Finally, I get a dang break and catch a deal!! So, I'm fired up!!!

tuckerwilliam

Sounds like some cool tricks! Kyle says he bought a compression checker and kept the cylinder full of compression to change each cylinder and it works like a dream! SOunds like the easiest and safest method so far, but I'm taking all ideas into my head and will prolly decide upon one when I get the valve covers off and curvey the situation myself!

tuckerwilliam

I found this link over on ls1howto.com http://www.ls1howto.com/index.php?article=23 It looks like a dang good article on changing out the cam. Anyone know if you have to remove the radiator and/or condenser on our trucks for a cam swap. I assume we don't have to remove the condenser or else it'd have to be evac'd recharged. I know the fan and clutch and shroud would have to get out of the way, so this may be a good time to install my LS1 fans as well, huh!!!!????

BigKID

iTrader: (5)

That is the article I used as a guide for my swap and everything is pretty much right on. You do not have to remove the condenser. You will have to tilt the radiator to the side though. If you dont have a tranny cooler with soft lines, you may have to undo the tranny lines from the radiator. I did it by my self and just used a bunjee to strap it up for a few minutes. Just make sure none of the lines are kinked when you put it back over. Other than that the article pretty much covers everything.
As for a spring tool, check thunder racing. The have that in-car spring compressor but it is kinda pricy.

Flyer

iTrader: (1)

You weren't talking about the 218/224 .527/.534 114 cam that you missed were you????

ls1pwrdSS was selling it.

Raylar

About the retainer question. Those factory retainers are the same ones used on the LS6 corvettes and they go to 6500rpm at .552 lift all day long. You'll be fine, just don't overdo the spring pressures for this mild cam, costs power and wears out lifters faster!
Hope this helps
Raylar

1LEThumper

I guess I just always used the air compressor and the fitting to plug into the spark plug hole. Search for a guy under the screen name 'larry' he has a very sweet spring compressor...I did a Z06 spring change in about an hour with his valve spring compressor tool.