Is it difficult to install/adjust stage 2 cams?

[Westcoast]

Hey guys I don't post very much but I'm on here everyday. I recently went to have my car dyno tuned and got some bads news when the pre-dyno news came back with a bad #7 cylinder, it appears the corner of the piston has melted a little. I have a 03 cobra with 70000km on it, and only about 17000km on the aluminator(hurt) The engine has a 2.1 kb and Fuel and exhaust mods. I suspect I bought the car this way as the shop that I was just at heard that the seller knew about it before I purchased it. Anyways I now have a hurt car. I have a spare 03 Longblock I took out of a 17k mile car and will be installing in into the car as it going to cost about 9000k to have my engine rebuilt(all arp hardware,heads gone thru, coated pistons etc). There isn't very many engine shops to choose from here(near Vancouver bc Canada) with reasonable engine prices. The shop that has been helping me has been great and they have a used set of stage 2 cams with springs and retainers that I will be purchasing. They are quoteing 8 hours to install and degree the cams with the long block dropped off to them. I am a mechanic by trade but haven't degreed timing chains before(except stock replacements), I've done a ton of dohc timing belts and Ohv cams and I understand you need some specialty tools. Is it really that hard and time consuming and difficult to replace and degree the cams? What tools are required and what is the cost? Any help or advise would be great. Thanks

 

[Cobra03SC]

8 hours seems very steep. I would see if they would work on that time period for you... By the time you buy all the tools needed, spend the headache trying to learn and calculate everything, and then when you are done wondering if when you crank the car are your valves going to be kissing some pistons... its almost worth it to pay. Now im all for learning how to do everything, i attempted to do my own and failed but learned alot. If you are buying the cams from them, i would see if they could not maybe cut you a MUCH better deal on the install/degree. I couldnt see paying more then 300-400 bucks to get them degreed if the motor is already out of the car.

 

[Westcoast]

Thanks for advise, I'm getting a good deal on the used cam kit but yes 720 is a lot to spend on labor. Even if I spend 2-300 on specialty tools and take a day to do it, might be good experiance to have.

 

[03Steve]

$200-$300 will get you started on the tools required.

 

[Cobra03SC]

like he said you need quite a few tools to do it correctly and none of them are very cheap. I still think 700+ dollars is way too much to pay for getting cams degreed. Problem is, alot of places dont know how to do them on a 4v, so there probably isnt many other shops to compare pricing at.

 

[SVT_Troy]

I bought the Sean Hyland book/DVD. It's pretty good.There is also an awesome thread over at Mod fords and Ed over there who is a moderator is more than willing to help people out through the process. It requires quite a few special or extra tools. Which I can list if you don't find them in the link/videos I have posted. (There listed there)

Check these links out ( You should be able to figure it out without the book/dvd between all these link my man :beer:

Mofasta's BOSS 5.0 Build Thread - Page 29


Well it's time for a rebuild. - Page 4

cam degreeing experts in here please

Help me put my order togther for the timing setup

 

[Westcoast]

That's great info! Thanks to everybody, I'm excited!