In the past, we’ve talked about cam installs and went into the meat and potatoes of actually doing it step by step. In this installment, we’re going to talk about just some tech tips that will make the job easier for you if you’re intending to do any engine work yourself. I’m going to be doing some of these tech tips on this engine that I’m in the process of bench building, and I’m going to do a couple of tech tips on a motor that’s in the frame here so that you can get a better idea of what I’m talking about. So let’s get into it.  

A lot of times you’re going to be doing a bolt-in cam, which means that you don’t have to change the valve springs or get up into the rocker boxes at all. That being the case, you’re going to cut the push rods out with bolt cutters, not with any saw or anything like that. You need to use legitimate bolt cutters. To do that, you’re going to pull the keeper off of the pushrod tube cover and slip the pushrod tube up. 

Then you’re ready to get in there with bolt cutters and cut that push rod. As you can see, there’s not a whole lot of room to get the bolt cutters in there with the throttle body in the way. Here’s Tech Tip #1: If you pull the throttle body off by just removing the three bolts holding it in place, you give yourself way more access to get in here to make your cut. And also, when you get down to adjusting your pushrods, it’s a lot easier to do it without that throttle there too. So now that we’ve got that out of the mix, it’s very easy to slip your bolt cutters in there and cut the pushrod out, allowing you to then get down here to your lifters.  

Now that we’ve removed all four pushrods and our tappet covers, we like to replace the factory plastic keepers with a billet aluminum set form S&S Cycle. The keepers are designed to keep the tappet from spinning so that the wheel stays clocked on the cam correctly. But replacing the plastic keepers can be tricky because the keeper bolts are notoriously weak. And if not removed correctly, can be a real pain in the balls, which brings us to Tech Tip #2.There’s really not a mechanical way that I can tell you to test for this, but when you put a tool on the keeper bolt, if it feels really tight, put some heat on it with a torch. What happens is you’ll spin the head off of that keeper bolt, which will put you right in the hurt locker because it’s very difficult to get them out without damaging the crank cases. So, what you want to do is take a torch and apply some heat to the crank case right there. You’re going to melt the cuff more than likely, but what the heat is going to do is break down the thread locker on the keeper bolt, and it’s also going to swell the aluminum in the crankcase, which is going to make the bolt a looser fit. Don’t be alarmed if things get a little smoky and weird. This is pretty normal. But after you’ve put a little bit of heat on the area, gently back that bolt out. You’ll feel a very noticeable difference in how much resistance it takes to get the bolt out now.  

When you go to install the new S&S keepers, it’s always a good idea to run a tap through the hole before reinstalling the keeper bolt. There’s usually a lot of threadlocking compound on these bolts, and that’s part of what causes the problem. It’s not a real strong fastener, and it’s got an excessive amount of loctite on it. So Once you get that out without burning your fingers, you can then pull that plastic cuff off and remove your tappets. 

SOURCES:  

Motorwitch Industries
https://motorwitchindustries.com/ 

S&S Cycle
sscycle.com