For those of you that may want to know what is involved in the installation of BIG billet cams, here is a writeup and some pics of what you should expect to have to do to shoehorn some big cams in the 7m.
First things first, dissasemble the head completely, and i mean everything. Next, test fit these big suckers in the bare head.
Uh oh, problem #1. The lobes are big enough that they make contact with the bucket bores. Time to get out the sharpie and mark where they hit, and grind some material away so that the cams can even turn.
Now the fun part. Using an assortment od diegrinders and bits, etc, grind away material enough so that teh cams can spin fully, WITHOUT damaging the bucket bores. This takes a lot of time, trust me.
rinse and repeat x24
Now that the cams can move, its time for reinstallation of the valve/saddle/spring/retainer combo.....buuuuut not the stock ones. Here is the underbucket hardware (a MUST) in comparison to Ferrea stuff. (Ferrea on the left, TED underbucket on the right.)
Here are the underbucket shims that go, well, under the bucket. They sit in the ridge in the retainer, and are responsible for setting your lash. there aint no spittin' these puppies. (the long piece is a piece of stock that can be used to make whatever size shim you need. You get an assorment of cut ones, but a piece of stock is nice incase the ones you get are too big, as in my case)
So using the spring compressor i got from Goodson Engine Tools (expensive but worth its weight in gold) the valvetrain can be reinstalled.
Slap a shim on there.
Then slap the bucket on there.
Bolt up the cam, and check for clearance.
rinse and repeat x24 AGAIN
In this case i needed a thinner shim b/c there is not enough clearance between the lobe and the bucket. This must be checked as if it is too tight, it can hang the valves, and you'll never have compression. No good.
*NOTE* after all this fitting, the head will have to come completely back apart to be cleaned again because of the millions of metal bits from the grinding. Also, there is obviously no valve seal pictured, which will be nice to have so that my exhaust isnt blue 24/7.
Also, for those who may not know, these are the TED components 288 duration 12.5mm lift units. (pn kk611) Other cams may not interfere as much and may not require all this work, especially if it has less lift, or doesnt even need underbuckets.
Any questions, feel free to chime in, or if i forgot something, feel free to call me stupid and tell me what i forgot.
First things first, dissasemble the head completely, and i mean everything. Next, test fit these big suckers in the bare head.
Uh oh, problem #1. The lobes are big enough that they make contact with the bucket bores. Time to get out the sharpie and mark where they hit, and grind some material away so that the cams can even turn.
Now the fun part. Using an assortment od diegrinders and bits, etc, grind away material enough so that teh cams can spin fully, WITHOUT damaging the bucket bores. This takes a lot of time, trust me.
rinse and repeat x24
Now that the cams can move, its time for reinstallation of the valve/saddle/spring/retainer combo.....buuuuut not the stock ones. Here is the underbucket hardware (a MUST) in comparison to Ferrea stuff. (Ferrea on the left, TED underbucket on the right.)
Here are the underbucket shims that go, well, under the bucket. They sit in the ridge in the retainer, and are responsible for setting your lash. there aint no spittin' these puppies. (the long piece is a piece of stock that can be used to make whatever size shim you need. You get an assorment of cut ones, but a piece of stock is nice incase the ones you get are too big, as in my case)
So using the spring compressor i got from Goodson Engine Tools (expensive but worth its weight in gold) the valvetrain can be reinstalled.
Slap a shim on there.
Then slap the bucket on there.
Bolt up the cam, and check for clearance.
rinse and repeat x24 AGAIN
In this case i needed a thinner shim b/c there is not enough clearance between the lobe and the bucket. This must be checked as if it is too tight, it can hang the valves, and you'll never have compression. No good.
*NOTE* after all this fitting, the head will have to come completely back apart to be cleaned again because of the millions of metal bits from the grinding. Also, there is obviously no valve seal pictured, which will be nice to have so that my exhaust isnt blue 24/7.
Also, for those who may not know, these are the TED components 288 duration 12.5mm lift units. (pn kk611) Other cams may not interfere as much and may not require all this work, especially if it has less lift, or doesnt even need underbuckets.
Any questions, feel free to chime in, or if i forgot something, feel free to call me stupid and tell me what i forgot.
