My first cam swap.
Any time you do something new, you will face challenges and obstacles. That was my experince with my first cam swap. I am not a mechanic, just an enthusiast. I love the way a cam could make youe car or truck sound, and I was determined to do a cam swap. I did a bunch of research to see how big of a job it was and after a while I was confident I could do it, and if not, scrap the truck for parts. I bought a sloppy stage 2 cam and BTR springs with the right amount of lift I needed, and a gasket set. I thought I was all set.
After jumping in head first, starting to take the radiator and fan out then the water pump, it was looking sweet. Once I got to the harmonic balancer I realized not being a mechanic I ddi not have the proper tool to take it off. I bought one and it came off no problem. While taking the timing cover off some of the bolts were hard to get to. I had to go buy some extensions and ¼” universal swivles, just to get a few of the bolts out. I didn’t realize the cam retainer plate was a gasket as well so I had to purchase that too. The cam went in easily while using kebab skewers to hold the lifters in place. All that went back together easily.I had already purchased the tool to remove the springs but I was not removing the heads while doing this job so I had to buy a connector to add air to hold the valves up while doing the springs. Replacing the springs and seals went a lot slower than I though it would but no issues there, just a learning curve. Watching a couple YouTube videos helped to install the rockers properly and all that went back together smoothly.
Reconnecting the battery I was so excited I knew it was the moment of truth I’ll see all my hard work pay off. After a few cranks she finally started and immediately shut off. I went through and checked every thing I could check, without a complete tear-down. After some days of research I realized it would not run properly without a proper tune of the pcm. I was dissapointed in myself for now gathering all the facts before I started. I should of known this before I started. More research while the truck was just sitting and I found PCM of NC. They set me up with a questionnaire about all the work and aftermarket parts of the truck, and built a tune around that. The turn around time was very quick, and as soon as I got it back and installed the truck roared to life with a new lovely cam lope sound coming from the exhaust.
It was definitely a learning experience that humbled me. I was already nervous to tear my truck apart to do something I had no idea about, but a very fun one. I learned a lot of what not to do and the proper way to do things. There are no such things as shortcut in automotive, its just creating more problems for yourself down the road. Since then I have added 243 cast heads ls7 lifters a TBSS intake along with a bunch of other lil things. And the cam is still doing fine no other issues there.