Ok guys. I don't know how many of you read my other post, but my motor needed Cam bearings, So Here's how ya change 'em. I think the process would be pretty similar with any other engine, as long as you had the correct drive spools. Here's the cam bearing tool I bought. Save the money and make it yourself; I bet it'd work better! (1" solid bar with some 1-3/8 tubing plug welded on) Here are the spools. The black one is steel; that's used to actually drive the bearings. The Red and Blue ones are aluminum; they support the drive arbor; The red one fits inside of the bearings, the blue one fits inside of the block (with no bearing). These measurements were taken with dial calipers, so they're not exact, but pretty damn close. The lengths aren't important, as long as they are long enough to go completely through the bearing. (If I were to make my own, I'd have machined the black one the same size as the red one... more on that later...) Here's the setup needed to drive the front bearing out/in and here's how it goes into the block. While putting it in this way go ahead and knock the cam plug out of the rear of the block (it won't go all the way in until you do) Take a good size (2-3#) brass hammer (or other soft material, so you don't mushroom the end) and knock the first bearing out. NOTE: DO NOT USE a Harbor Freight dead blow hammer! (you'll fill your block with lead shot!!!!) The bearing will come out like so... Slide the bearing off of the spool and turn it sideways to get it out... This is the setup you'll use to R & R all of the other bearings Like this: The new cam bearings are different sizes, and they come IN ORDER, so DON'T MIX THEM UP!!! I chose to go with High Performance bearings coated with a dry film lubricant Here is the bore in the block. Make sure that the hole in your new bearing rides somewhere along the oil groove in the block (If you drive it in too far, or not far enough, the hole will be partially blocked... THIS IS BAD!!!) Now to the reason I'd machine the drive spool smaller: The coated bearing fit on the spool fine, but once the bearing was crushed, it was a REALLY tight fit. I actually had to drive the spool out from the backside (it should have slipped right out). As a result, it wore away some of the dry film lubricant!!! Good thing I paid $45 for the good bearings! You can see that here... Ta Daa! You now have new cam bearings!!!
that poor dead blow hammer...there's a whole $2 down the crapper!!!! hey, i think i may have some bearings that could use changing...then you could do a compare and contrast tech post with your sbc and a flattie.
well for now, that turd is all i can afford...have to start with the turd, but i'm gonna move up one of these days to a full on piece of crap..... you think new bearings would take my motor outta the single digit horsepower range... yeah, i got a 100 horse flatty that will do 9...hp that is.
is it a pain in the ass to change the bearings with the engine in the car?? theres nothing in front of it. JimV
you have to remove and replace the cam plug at the rear of the block... THAT would be the pain in the ass with the motor in the car!
Come on guys, I went through all the time and trouble to make this post and NOBODY even cares??? I thought everbody would dig it... it's one of the only parts of engine building that most people don't do themselves! IT'S EASY!!! I PROMISE!!! All of the machine shops around here charge $40-$50 labor to do it, and you could make the tool for WAY less than that.
Hey! What kinda lame-ass tech post is THIS??? Why couldn't ya do a 2.8 or some other REALLY COOL engine?? Sheeesh! What passes for tech these days!!!!
Maybe next time I'll do a 4.3 Hack, but that's about as close to a 2.8 tech as I'll ever do! unless I can devise some sort of winch system to get one back off the bottom of the lake when it's time to move the boat again!!!
LMFAO!!! You'd have to be sportin' an Icebreaker to be moving your boat around the lake about now!!! (And 2.8s are LIGHT...a big guy like you could yank one up no problem!) Ha...winch indeed...!!!
I am amazed.... no not at this tech, but at the idea that HotRodtoHell put this up. Hey Hack, that 2.8 bearing tech is over on the Beretta site! Nice job with this tech post Steve, I am proud of you! -Joe
Honestly, this CHEAP one was $70! I bet you could get a local machine shop to machine all of your spools for about $20 if you couldn't do it yourself! (I have a bunch of friends that are tool and die makers so I can get crap like this done for free most of the time...) You'd have about $10 into the steel IF you couldn't find some scrap that would work... In my case, the time I would have used to make the tool was worth more than the tool cost to buy...
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