Never mind; just looked up and read his post....

Any idea when his cams would have been made/packaged? Maybe they had a bad run or something?

 

for fear of giving you the wrong info, I'll let him answer that. if he hasn't replied by tonight i'll call him and make him aware of this thread again

 

Fellow member Halflife brought his truck to me after Ford replaced a head. He said it had a "miss" at idle, that was not bad, but more pronounced than before. It also felt a little low on power, but he also hadn't put all his mods back on, so it was hard to tell.

With the motor running, I started pulling coil plugs one by one. Pulling each plug off on the pass side, seemed to make no difference, but all the drivers side ones dropped the rpm pretty good. That was our first clue that it was something more than just one cylinder. Compression check also showed results like yours, with one side being lower. When I pulled the covers off, I found the drivers side was one tooth off, and the pass side was two teeth off. The truck really didn't run "bad", but once I fixed it, you could surely feel the difference.

 

Good post Bob, since my early cam problems, I decided to go with the adjustable cam gears this time and spent a good amount of time checking and rechecking.

 

Who sales the adj cam gears?

Peace,

Suavy

 

http://www.modcamponents1.com/gears.htm

http://sites.reachtheworld.tv/waterN...05244&DID=1225 (patriot performance)


I'm sure there are others as well

 

Thank's! Those things are 1/2 the price of what the cams cost! :o

 

Call Micheal At L&M Engines 215-675-8485. He sells split crank gears that are adjustable, and they are cheaper. Or you can go to his site. http://www.lmengines.com/ This is this is who AVT Performance uses.

 

Great Info Woody!

 

Mine were some of the VERY first Crower cams made, Comp was not yet in the market and Crane has only just now entered. Mine was a custom design of my own at the time, but it is now listed as CROWER STAGE III N/A and Crane has a near identical grind as well that I have bought to replace the poorly ground Crower. When doing my first tune for me, Jim told me at the time the cam might be too big for the street, it worked great. See he is now selling Stage III SC cams. I am too dumb to understand why Crower thinks a SC motor needs less exhaust timing than a NA motor, do not see anyone else doing it on blower or nitrous cams.

The wider (121 vs 114) LSA is what dropped my compression on the driver's bank. The difference in compression between banks was my primary clue, but especially when i did a leakdown on both sides and they were all at 2-3%. The truck still ran good managing an 11.60 on ported Eaton. After I degreed intake center lines, compression disparity was still there. When I calculated LSA by checking exhaust centerlines as well is when I discovered one cam ground incorrectly.

Correctly installing cams with stock gears does not ensure proper cam installation, you must degree intake LCA for that. To confirm cam ground correctly, you must also check exhaust LCA. It is a long, slow job with motor in the truck! Best done on the engine stand.

As I recall each tooth on cam gear is equivalent to ~17 crank degrees, assumes 42 teeth on cam gear and i am not looking at a gear, so I may be wrong. (360 degrees / number of teeth on cam gear) X 2 cam (turn half as fast as crank). Motor might run if cam gear one tooth retarded, but compression and power will be waaay off. If it is the drivers side, so will fuel delivery since cam sensor is on that side. If one tooth advanced or retarded, you may have a valve may hit the piston.

You must be very careful when degreeing cams, done wrong, the springs can kick cam around and allow valve to hit a piston. That is why Ford has the tools that clamp to cams to keep them from moving during installation of timing chains. You can do it without them, but you better understand and use the neutral position (no piston at TDC) for doing install, study your service manuals. Our dished pistons and pistons being set deep in the hole on 5.4's give us some additional safety factor, the 4.6 guys do not have the luxury of that additional clearance.

The adjustable cam gears work well, but you can very easily mis-install the pin and be way off although the pin will appear properly installed in front gear, but in wrong hole on rear collar. Each change should be confirmed with degree wheel. Do not recommend you later go back and just change the pin position to change cam timing a few degrees.

You can get by with one solid lifter, but two make the work go faster if you are checking both intake and exhaust centerlines. Could never find the solid lifters in stock at Anderson Ford. Finally got them dirrect from the manufacturer, same company who makes the gears for Patriot and L&L: modcamponents.com Bought five sets of gears and some lifters, delivery was prompt and service good, and the only game in town.

 

Does any one have a how to write up on doing this process?

Please post up if you do.

God Bless,

Suavy

 

Casey
Another thought....after reading BigBob's post maybe you don't have a miss installled cam but rather a bad cam. I think I know who did your motor and I have a hard time believing they made a mistake like that but stuff happens.
Dale

 

Yeah; I am thinking that might be it too! At this point I don't know. No matter what I am swapping cams out; should have everything appart where I can get a good look at it early next week.

I find it hard to beleive that they would do that, but if you knew some of what they did/didn't do you might be totally shocked

 

Suavy, my engine builder and I spent about a full day setting the solid lifter setup on my motor. What a pita, the lifters had to be sent out and machined down 3 times since they were either holding the valve open on the intake then the exhaust. As far as the adjustable crank gears being cheaper, they are a little, but the cam gears are so much easier to set, plus you will have tons more adjustability. Talk to Mike at lmengines, Suavy, Im sure he will give you a deal.

 

The solid lifters sold by Modcamponents are adjustable, you merely use and Allen wrench to set lash?? Zero lash (for degreeing cam) is easy, with follower on the cams base circle (or heel), you just adjust screw as tight as you can and still have the lifter rotating when you remove your wrench from the hex on solid lifter body and turn the Allen wrench. Setting the necessary 0.003" clearance (to run solid lifter on hydraulic cam) requires getting feeler gage between cam and roller on rocker, not much room with motor in truck, do it the first time before re-installing the motor. Frequent adjustments will be needed and pulling valve covers and doing this will be a long job.