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Cam Install

From 1981 Ford Bronco “Spartan”, documented by AbandonedBronco.

106 photos
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1981 Ford Bronco - A new set of Comp timing gears. The fact that the 300 doesn't have a timing chain to stretch/break, etc. is just another addition to the li… 1981 Ford Bronco - Purchased a new cam spacer and thrust plate (also had new bolts and a cam alignment key). This made it so I could skip the job of removing… 1981 Ford Bronco - A Comp Cam 260h. Purchased the cam from a guy off Craigslist. He had had it in his garage and never installed it. I'm guessing from the art… 1981 Ford Bronco - Can see the 260H embossed into the end (albeit upside down). 1981 Ford Bronco - A camshaft is shown in front of a white interior door, with a "Supermotors.net" watermark visible. 1981 Ford Bronco - Checking for clearance between the plate and the spacer. The spacer is only very, very slightly thicker than the plate, like .005" inches. 1981 Ford Bronco - Camshaft held in hand, with a 'COMPETITION CAMS' box visible in the background. 1981 Ford Bronco - Test fitting the spacer. 1981 Ford Bronco - A person holds a metal automotive part, likely a timing chain tensioner, for inspection. 1981 Ford Bronco - A camshaft timing gear is held up for inspection, showing its metallic construction and central bore. 1981 Ford Bronco - A new set of Comp springs, lifters, valve seals, and umbrella seals. 1981 Ford Bronco - Put the spacer and thrust plate on, and then tapped in the cam alignment key. 1981 Ford Bronco - Found later that the key wasn't fully seated, which made it more difficult to get the cam gear on. 1981 Ford Bronco - To help the cam gear to slide on easier, I put it in the oven for a half hour at 300*. It helped to expand the metal a little. 1981 Ford Bronco - The gear didn't go on all the way (I'm guessing the alignment key wasn't seated fully), so I needed to finish pressing it on. 1981 Ford Bronco - Found a bolt that fit the thread on the end of the cam, and used a stack of washers to help press it on. 1981 Ford Bronco - Grabbed a hold of the timing gear and tightened down. It didn't take a lot of effort, but the cam gear was *sharp*. You can see my blood on… 1981 Ford Bronco - Cam gear's fully pressed on. 1981 Ford Bronco - An underside view of how snug the cam is up against the thrust plate. The spacer ring is the only thing keeping them from touching. 1981 Ford Bronco - A close-up of a camshaft gear and shaft, showing mechanical components. 1981 Ford Bronco - From what I heard, the spacer is only 0.005" thicker than the thrust plate. Not much at all, but the thrust plate spins freely. 1981 Ford Bronco - That is one long cam. 1981 Ford Bronco - Engine before digging in. 1981 Ford Bronco - More pre-install pics. 1981 Ford Bronco - Radiator hoses removed. 1981 Ford Bronco - Spark plug and wires removed. 1981 Ford Bronco - Radiator unbolted and taken out. 1981 Ford Bronco - Accessory belts removed. 1981 Ford Bronco - Need to make room for the cam to come out, so the grill needs to come off. 1981 Ford Bronco - Removed the bolt on the harmonic balancer. 1981 Ford Bronco - Attaching the pulley puller and worked the harmonic balancer off. 1981 Ford Bronco - View through the chrome grille opening of a dark red truck with the radiator removed, showing a jaw-type puller clamped onto the multi-groo… 1981 Ford Bronco - Needed more room to work, so removed the rest of the grill trim. 1981 Ford Bronco - Harmonic balancer off, and out of the way. 1981 Ford Bronco - Timing cover and water pump removed. Now had access to the timing gears. 1981 Ford Bronco - They look to be in nice shape. 1981 Ford Bronco - Front of a V8 engine with the timing cover and water pump removed in the vehicle, exposing the large helical-cut camshaft gear meshed with… 1981 Ford Bronco - Removed the valve cover to start removing the valve train. 1981 Ford Bronco - Valve cover removed on an in-vehicle V8, exposing oiled rocker arms, valve springs and pushrods along the cylinder head with orange gasket… 1981 Ford Bronco - Used an egg carton to sort the push rods and valve train components. Works perfectly for a 6 cylinder. 1981 Ford Bronco - Rocker arms and push rods removed. 1981 Ford Bronco - Tight macro of an oil-soaked cylinder head top with the rocker arms removed, showing bare valve springs, retainers and a threaded rocker st… 1981 Ford Bronco - Oil-wetted close-up of a cylinder head with rocker arms removed, showing paired valve springs with retainers and keepers, two bare threaded… 1981 Ford Bronco - Double checking to be sure the timing marks are lined up before removal. Before I did so, I lined the large holes of the cam gear up with t… 1981 Ford Bronco - Found out that the puller for the balancer was pressing against the threads on the end of the crankshaft and buggered them up. Next time I'… 1981 Ford Bronco - Lifter cover and distributor removed . 1981 Ford Bronco - V8 engine in the vehicle with the intake manifold removed, exposing the open lifter valley, pushrods and both banks of valve springs with o… 1981 Ford Bronco - Engine lifters laid out on concrete, possibly before or after installation. 1981 Ford Bronco - Lifters removed. The cam is ready to be pulled out. However, I didn't want to pull it quite yet, since I didn't want the lobes dragging ove… 1981 Ford Bronco - Overhead shot into an oily engine bay with the intake manifold off, showing the exposed lifter valley, pushrods, valve springs and orange s… 1981 Ford Bronco - Didn't have a jack tall enough to reach the engine so I had to use a block of wood as an extension. The end of the crank worked well, altho… 1981 Ford Bronco - A real pain. I had the engine jacked up and before I could get blocks in place to rest it on, the jack pushed back and the engine slid back… 1981 Ford Bronco - Can see just how far back the engine moved. 1981 Ford Bronco - Close-up view of an engine bay, showing mechanical components and wiring. 1981 Ford Bronco - Head-on view into the open engine bay of a red Ford truck with the grille, radiator and front core support panel removed, exposing the fron… 1981 Ford Bronco - The *ONLY* bonus about the engine sliding backwards is it made it very easy to remove the oil pan. I was able to remove it without removing… 1981 Ford Bronco - Underhood shot down the side of a black, oil-wet engine block showing the oil pan rail, exhaust manifold and steering linkage, taken from b… 1981 Ford Bronco - A view underneath of the cam. 1981 Ford Bronco - Oily under-hood shot looking down the front of an engine block at the mechanical fuel pump and its steel fuel line, with the oil pan rail a… 1981 Ford Bronco - Struggled to get the cam out for a while, until I realized the fuel pump was still in place. After removing it, the cam slid right out with… 1981 Ford Bronco - A shot down the camshaft hole. 1981 Ford Bronco - The cam bearings are now visible and accessible. 1981 Ford Bronco - The old cam. Looks to be in decent of enough shape. 1981 Ford Bronco - The puller for the crank timing gear couldn't fit behind the gear, due to the limited space. Had to use a chisel set and start from the sma… 1981 Ford Bronco - Front of an engine with the timing cover off and camshaft gear removed, showing the crankshaft snout gear held with a long wrench and the e… 1981 Ford Bronco - Crank timing gear successfully removed. 1981 Ford Bronco - Front of an engine with the timing cover exposed and the water pump removed, showing the bare crankshaft snout, the open front seal bore an… 1981 Ford Bronco - Got a free piece of pipe at Home Depot to use to tap the new crank gear in place. 1981 Ford Bronco - A little time in the oven at 300* and a little grease helped it to slide on pretty far. 1981 Ford Bronco - Tapped it on the rest of the way with the metal pipe. 1981 Ford Bronco - As an off-project, I decided to modify my oil pan to use the one piece rubber gasket, which is leaps and bounds better than the four piece. 1981 Ford Bronco - Used a grinder to grind the ridges from around the bolt holes off the oil pan. Not too difficult. 1981 Ford Bronco - Cleaning years of buildup off of the timing cover before installing the new seals. 1981 Ford Bronco - Cleaned up the face some. 1981 Ford Bronco - Close-up of engine timing cover and gears, likely during a repair or rebuild. 1981 Ford Bronco - The new cam is in place. Double and triple checked to be sure the timing marks were lined up. Last thing I want to do is repeat the whole j… 1981 Ford Bronco - Took another picture just to reassure myself they were lined up properly. 1981 Ford Bronco - An open Comp Cams box of twelve new valve springs or lifters sits on a black valve cover stamped with the Ford oval, staged in the engine b… 1981 Ford Bronco - New lifters installed, a new lifter cover gasket, and the bolts back in place. 1981 Ford Bronco - Rented a valve spring compressor that can be used without removing the head. Since I don't have an air compressor, I had to use the old tri… 1981 Ford Bronco - Getting the old keepers loose could be a chore on quite a few of these. Had to tap the top of the spring compressor with a hammer to knock… 1981 Ford Bronco - Close-up of a light-colored braided rope-style rear main seal being twisted around a steel bar against the oily engine block. The open lift… 1981 Ford Bronco - The old oil seals were all brittle and broken. Most likely contributing to my puffs of white smoke when I'd start the Bronco in the morning. 1981 Ford Bronco - Compressed spring. Don't let them fly off and hit you in the face. It hurts. 1981 Ford Bronco - Spring, keeper, and oil seal removed and the valve stem visible. 1981 Ford Bronco - Fresh, new oil seal in place. Soft, pliable teflon. Should make a difference. 1981 Ford Bronco - Spring compressor tool used during cam installation in a 1981 Ford Bronco. 1981 Ford Bronco - New Comp spring compressed and in place. 1981 Ford Bronco - Setting the keepers in place. Took a little wiggling around and taping to get them to seat. 1981 Ford Bronco - One down, eleven to go. 1981 Ford Bronco - More broken and brittle original valve seals. 1981 Ford Bronco - Found and issue *after* I spent hours wrestling the engine back forward and into place. The clutch ball and socket and separated and I need… 1981 Ford Bronco - Another morning of work, waking up to a blanket of snow. If you're going to be doing a cam job outside, look at the weather forecast before… 1981 Ford Bronco - Ran into a problem when I torqued down the lifter cover gasket and snapped a bolt off. What kind of bolt snaps off when torquing against a… 1981 Ford Bronco - After re-tapping the end of the crank, I installed a new timing cover gasket and installed the timing over. Since I didn't have an alignmen… 1981 Ford Bronco - Still needed to drill and tap the broken bolt. 1981 Ford Bronco - Decided to take a picture after spending several hours fixing a stupid mistake.... When you have 12 springs, 12 sets of spring keepers, and… 1981 Ford Bronco - Close-up of an engine's water pump, pulleys, and associated components. 1981 Ford Bronco - The engine bay of a red Ford truck is shown with the hood up and various tools laid out. 1981 Ford Bronco - Time to reinstall the front end trim. 1981 Ford Bronco - Water pump reinstalled with a fresh gasket. Installed a new water pump about two years ago, or this would have been a good time to put one… 1981 Ford Bronco - Has its face back again. 1981 Ford Bronco - A picture of the new Comp springs installed. 1981 Ford Bronco - Engine valve springs and retainers are visible in this close-up shot. 1981 Ford Bronco - Well, several months later, the cam ate a lifter. The lifter I pulled out is on the right. It also sheared the lobe right off the cam. Time… 1981 Ford Bronco - Engine timing gears are visible in this close-up shot, marked with 'SA'.