cams in 99+
- Thread starter robg860
- Start date
i've talked to the guys at my local shop about it and they say it's a bitch because you have to take the front off the engine and the top. BUT i did see a tool recently that holds the cam sprokets and timing chains in place so you don't have to reset them when you are done, and i guess that could cut down significantly on the install time.
nickthegenius
Active Member
Install is not that bad if you have the right tools. As 1990StangLX said, there is a tool you can use to remove the cams without taking the front cover off. Let me tell you, it is well-worth the $35-shipped price I paid. Now that my cams and valve springs are done, my cams could easily be changed out again in about 2-hours. How do I know that, well we (my friend and I) had a dumbass attack and left a spacer off my passenger-side cam nose and buttoned the whole thing back together.
Well, we pulled the pass-side valve cover, sprocket, and cam and had everything back together WITH the spacer in about 1 hour. Anyhow, the tool is offered by two sources. One is Anderson Ford Motorsports. The other is Rotunda which you can buy through your local Ford dealer. I bought the AFM version and as stated above it worked well. The only problem is that they will not work with press-on sprockets used on the '99-'00 Windsor engines.
The AFM tool:
Also, for the valve springs you will need the OTC valve spring tool which can be found here for a decent price:
http://www.sjdiscounttools.com/otc7928.html
The valve springs are the worst part of the install. It took about 5 hours on the passenger side. It just took forever to get the hang of it. Removing them is a breeze, installing them is no fun. Finally we found that using grease on the end of a long screwdriver and sticking the valve keeper on it worked the best. That with a dental pick to help with placement in the grooves worked well. The driver's side took 1.5 hours.
The best info I can guide you to is found here:
http://www.modulardepot.com/?show=articlesdet&aid=39
BTW, I have the Comp Cams XE270AH cams and Comp's valve springs. I'm happy with the results. The local tuner got 290RWHP out of my car and just over 300ft/lbs of torque.
Well, we pulled the pass-side valve cover, sprocket, and cam and had everything back together WITH the spacer in about 1 hour. Anyhow, the tool is offered by two sources. One is Anderson Ford Motorsports. The other is Rotunda which you can buy through your local Ford dealer. I bought the AFM version and as stated above it worked well. The only problem is that they will not work with press-on sprockets used on the '99-'00 Windsor engines.
The AFM tool:
Also, for the valve springs you will need the OTC valve spring tool which can be found here for a decent price:
http://www.sjdiscounttools.com/otc7928.html
The valve springs are the worst part of the install. It took about 5 hours on the passenger side. It just took forever to get the hang of it. Removing them is a breeze, installing them is no fun. Finally we found that using grease on the end of a long screwdriver and sticking the valve keeper on it worked the best. That with a dental pick to help with placement in the grooves worked well. The driver's side took 1.5 hours.
The best info I can guide you to is found here:
http://www.modulardepot.com/?show=articlesdet&aid=39
BTW, I have the Comp Cams XE270AH cams and Comp's valve springs. I'm happy with the results. The local tuner got 290RWHP out of my car and just over 300ft/lbs of torque.
Tylerb59
Banned
nickthegenius said:
Thanks for the run through. What mods do you have paired up with the cams / springs?
nickthegenius
Active Member
Tylerb59 said:
Cams/springs
Mac LTs
Trubendz o/r X-pipe
Steeda UDs
C&L Plenum
Accufab 75mm TB
Steeda CAI
Magnaflow CB w/Spintechs welded in
Nice post nicktehgenius. The valve springs sounds like a biotch. From the times you provided you averaged about 19 min a spring on the passenger side and about 6 mins a spring on the driver side. Yikes! I hope I can get the hang of this when I do it - I'll definately try your method first. Do you have to have two people to do the springs, or is it just easier with two?
nickthegenius
Active Member
NasaGT said:
I honestly don't know how one person could do it. My friend compressed the spring and I placed the keepers. If someone has done it by themselves, they are quite talented :worship: or have 3 hands
4.6_02_Black_GT
Founding Member
Hey Nick, or anyone with Cam swap experience.
As I mentioned in another post I'm planning on installing a set of Compcams XE270AH cams and new springs.
I'm still in need of a few mores pieces of info. Can anyone post a pic of the spring keepers, I need to understand what makes them to so hard to handle. I guess I could go down to the dealership and buy a set too. I'll need a few spares anyway right?? Also everyone mentions the keepers on top of the springs, I'm assuming not one is replacing the actual valve spring seats?? I'm guessing the head would have to be pulled to do that anyway??
Also Emissions is a concern, I could go with the base cam upgrade the XE262AH, but for the nearly $1000 investment of cams, springs plus a couple of new tools.(compersor, and chain tool) and 10 hours work. The base cam upgrade is not exceptable.
The guy at CompCams said that I would have trouble with emissions at idle because the ECU would have trouble at low engine rpm trying to keep the fuel/air just right, due to the eccentric cam. He said the car will crank and run, he said it would behave better at higher rpm, which is consistent with everyone comments about trouble with rough idle and stalling at low engine rpms. The CompCam guy recommend a Diablo chip to store a stock tune, a high performance tune, and "Lets just past Emissions tune".
Can someone give me guidance on their Chip/tune choice and if they were able to pass emissions. Also did you have to increase you idle rpm to keep the engine from stalling at stop lights??
As I mentioned in another post I'm planning on installing a set of Compcams XE270AH cams and new springs.
I'm still in need of a few mores pieces of info. Can anyone post a pic of the spring keepers, I need to understand what makes them to so hard to handle. I guess I could go down to the dealership and buy a set too. I'll need a few spares anyway right?? Also everyone mentions the keepers on top of the springs, I'm assuming not one is replacing the actual valve spring seats?? I'm guessing the head would have to be pulled to do that anyway??
Also Emissions is a concern, I could go with the base cam upgrade the XE262AH, but for the nearly $1000 investment of cams, springs plus a couple of new tools.(compersor, and chain tool) and 10 hours work. The base cam upgrade is not exceptable.
The guy at CompCams said that I would have trouble with emissions at idle because the ECU would have trouble at low engine rpm trying to keep the fuel/air just right, due to the eccentric cam. He said the car will crank and run, he said it would behave better at higher rpm, which is consistent with everyone comments about trouble with rough idle and stalling at low engine rpms. The CompCam guy recommend a Diablo chip to store a stock tune, a high performance tune, and "Lets just past Emissions tune".
Can someone give me guidance on their Chip/tune choice and if they were able to pass emissions. Also did you have to increase you idle rpm to keep the engine from stalling at stop lights??
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