First off, I don't remember seeing anyone post about this on this board. For a little background, this tool is supposed to be a big timesaver for those swapping cams in a 4.6 2v. There is a similar tool that is made by, I believe, Rotunda that some techs use at the dealerships but it costs much less. This one though is much cheaper and so far has worked fine. In the pic below, you can get an idea of what it does. It is shoved down the front cover and wedges itself in between both sides fo the chain. You turn the crank back and forth a little to make sure it is seated well. You then quickly swap the camshafts and you're done. The way it saves time is that you don't have to pull the whole front of the motor apart to time the engine.
My passenger side valve springs and cam have been changed. We changed the springs, unbolted the cam bolt, inserted the tool, turned the crank back and forth a little to get the tool snug, and then quickly swapped the cam.
Now I know there are plenty of nay-sayers (sp?) on another board that have already pointed fingers at us blasphemers who bought the tool. All I know is that I saved a bunch of time and that I am 99.99999% sure that everything is still in time. I held the tool in place after we got it nice and snug by turning the crank back and forth. While holding the sprocket and the top of the tool, I carefully walked the sprocket off the end of the cam and my friend swapped cams and reversed the procedure.
We are hoping to get the valve springs in the other head done tomorrow night. The passenger side ended up being quite easy after we got the hang of it. Last night we did the first 5 springs from front to back in about 45 minutes. Then, the 6th on took almost an hour. It was the worst on out of the bunch. Just really bad angles and it was really hard getting the keepers in place. The 7th and 8th springs took about 15 miuntes apiece.
Some of you guys made some suggestions about how do do the keepers. The best thing for us was to put a little grease on the end of a flat-blade screwdriver and stick the keeper to it. Then, you can get it on to the valve fairly easily. The other thing that helped out tonight on the 8th spring (closest to firewall) was the same thing, but in addition to the screwdriver we used a metal dental pick to aid in placement.
This whole thing is like a demented game of "Operation".
My passenger side valve springs and cam have been changed. We changed the springs, unbolted the cam bolt, inserted the tool, turned the crank back and forth a little to get the tool snug, and then quickly swapped the cam.
Now I know there are plenty of nay-sayers (sp?) on another board that have already pointed fingers at us blasphemers who bought the tool. All I know is that I saved a bunch of time and that I am 99.99999% sure that everything is still in time. I held the tool in place after we got it nice and snug by turning the crank back and forth. While holding the sprocket and the top of the tool, I carefully walked the sprocket off the end of the cam and my friend swapped cams and reversed the procedure.
We are hoping to get the valve springs in the other head done tomorrow night. The passenger side ended up being quite easy after we got the hang of it. Last night we did the first 5 springs from front to back in about 45 minutes. Then, the 6th on took almost an hour. It was the worst on out of the bunch. Just really bad angles and it was really hard getting the keepers in place. The 7th and 8th springs took about 15 miuntes apiece.
Some of you guys made some suggestions about how do do the keepers. The best thing for us was to put a little grease on the end of a flat-blade screwdriver and stick the keeper to it. Then, you can get it on to the valve fairly easily. The other thing that helped out tonight on the 8th spring (closest to firewall) was the same thing, but in addition to the screwdriver we used a metal dental pick to aid in placement.
This whole thing is like a demented game of "Operation".