I've seen it before on reman engines and you'll surely want to put it back the way that gives the best clearancing. Once the engine is align bored/honed.. factory or afterwards.. they need to be clocked that same way from then on. Or at least until the mains are align bored/honed again after they're swapped around.
Yep, swapped it around and now have a solid 0.002 across the number three main. Still don't like the arrow facing the wrong direction but what are you going to do. I did check the original bearings and they were ford with a date stamp of 73. With any luck I'll have the final drop of the crank tomorrow.
That's a great point, I wouldn't want anybody in the future to get it wrong. A couple minutes with a dremel and nobody will have to worry about it again. (Thanks!)
Made some progress today, installed the cam, crank and timing chain. Had a little trouble with the cam and a have a question about the timing chain installation. The #1 cam bearing was to “tight” for my liking, it didn’t want to “slip” through. I ended up using scotch-bright and WD-40 until I could get it to slide through smoothly. I think its ok at this point, it spins nice and smooth. The parts details are Clay Smith 278/278-12 degree cam, JP Performance dual roller with nine key ways for adjusting cam timing in 2, 4, and 6 degree increments (advance or retard). Here are all the pics! At the end, I’ll talk about the timing chain. Made in the U.S.A. (just the way I like it!) On the rear main seal I used a dab of high temp red RTV and set the seal at about 1/4 inch offset. Here's where I have the question, notice the position of the crank key in relation to the cam gear "dot" and the +4 advanced notch.
The instructions are not absolutely clear but I believe I set it up for a +4 degree advance. By setting up the cam gear dot to the crank key, then spinning the crank until the +4 degree notch lines up with the cam gear dot, I believe it makes it +4 degree advanced. If anybody can confirm this I would appreciate it. Also, I’ve not torqued the cam gear yet, just snugged it up.
Question: Did you degree the cam first? You can't just advance the cam 4 degrees without knowing where the actual cam timing is when installed straight up.
I believe that if you line up the key with the cam gear dot, you are at zero. Then you can verify by degreeing the cam, correct?
Correct...line up the dots per instruction #1. Then degree the cam with a degree wheel and dial indicator. Then you can adjust to come up with the desired 4 degrees advance. For example...if when you degree the cam it comes out as 2 degrees advanced then you just need to adjust an additional 2 degrees advance to come up with the total of 4 degrees advance.
Right! I’m not ready to degree the cam yet. I don’t have the pistons installed. Once I get the pistons installed I’ll degree the cam at “0” and verify the cam is actually ground correctly and the intake and exhaust are opening and closing “as advertised”. I’m probably getting a little ahead but the instructions are not clear as to where the key should be in relation to the dot on the gear when setting up the +4 degree advance. I was looking to confirm that I understood the instructions after I read it like 20 times LOL!
you're only half right there bud. You must have the KEY IN the 4 degree advanced position while ALSO pointing to the upper sprockets mark. The way you have it is with the 4 degree advanced keyway pointing towards the upper mark(which is right).. with the actual key installed at 0(which is wrong). The picture clearly shows where things need to be set for proper alignment with whatever advance you end up running here. The way you have it set now is not even installed straight up either.. as when you try to align that 0 keyway.. the upper mark will be far from aligned. Section 2.. paragragh 2 says it all.
That's right. You can't look at the degree seperation between the keyways. The actual difference between "O" and "+4" on the actual gear is almost 90 degrees. The actual advance or retard in base timing happens between the position of the keyway, relative to the tooth/valley immediately adjacent to it. The crank key and the mark on the cam sprocket have to be aligned to each other, with your "+4" keyway being used for the crank key, NOT the "0".
And thus my confusion sets in LOL! By aligning the cam gear dot and crank key to each other (zeroed) and only changing the sprocket to either the zero position keyway or the +4 degree position keyway you are not changing the “mechanical timing” of the cam to the crank. In either case the cam gear dot stays lined up with the crank key. Does that make since?
