I put mine in at .012 lash and did not mess with it. I ran it for a couple hundred miles and re-ran the valves, but I am pretty sure I just left them at .012. I do have higher compression and have to run premium, but I love how it runs. Runs mid 17's in the quarter and can get 21-22MPG on a trip with a gear change.

Rick

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2 Mopars come with Spark plug tubes. One is a world class, racing machine. The other is a 426 CI. boat anchor!

12.70 @ 104.6

Thanks Rick, I had surmised that the profile you had ground should be pretty trouble free and a nice runner...

Looking like an in car swap and braille reading competition.....





Was out looking at the car and for some reason I thought of a spoof for that old Suzi Quatro song....

"...Stand by your Aspen buddy... and can can that cam....you got another stick baby, swap it while you can....."

Better get some breakfast... going to be an interesting weekend...

Probably I'd keep my day job too!

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2 Mopars come with Spark plug tubes. One is a world class, racing machine. The other is a 426 CI. boat anchor!

12.70 @ 104.6

It's about a 50/50 on an F-body for a cam swap in the car or pull the engine.... (on a late engine you have to pull almost everything anyway to get to the cam and lifters...)

Tomorrow I need to pull the oil pump and head, and I can swap the cam in the car.... In an odd design 'issue' for the F-body, the cam lines up with the concave in the front bumper... and it looks like the cam can be pulled without having to remove the grille or bumper.... we shall see if this bears out.... regardless I will still have to pull the motor mount bolts to remove the oil pump....

Tomorrow will be a whole new definition of 'fun'....

I think from here on out I'm going to be a fan of "pull the motor" rather than do the job in the car....

After pretty much disassembling the whole engine, I got the cam out....

F-body guys must have a real love hate relationship with this platform... pulling the oil pump is easy once the engine is jacked up... that being said, getting the bolts in or out requires dexterity, sensitive touch, a masters in braille, and some wobblies.... and a langauge that I thought was exclusive to sailors and the dad in the movie "A christmas story"...

The cam will not come out with out another plan...it is too long by the rear journal and the #12 exhaust lobe...

That being said... if Mopar had really been head scratching their design... an F-body guy can pull the license plate... cut a 1 1/2" deep notch in the passenger side bottom corner of the license plate knockout... and the cam comes right out through the hole... once the new cam is in... you put the plate back into place and no one is the wiser on visual inspection....

So the old cam is out, and I am putting the Comp 264 that I have as a spare back in... (Not my favorite choice, but it should be fine for this build....)

Looking at the cam I pulled out it's engraved with OCG819A, and has a serial number, since it didn't come with a cam card, I'm going to call OCG and see if I can get the specs for this grind... if not, when I get some spare time I can mock it up in a spare block and map it the old fashioned way...

Tomorrow I will degree the cam in, and put it all back together and try again....

I've used the Oregon 819 and it did well. I'd probably use it instead of the Comp. http://www.oregoncamshaft.com/Mechanical-Cam-Specs.html

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Joshua

That was what I assembled in the engine originally was this 819A grind... this version of the 819 is not happy in the build, the LSA is not per the standard grind.... it's really 'cranky' and lopey like it has way too much overlap... it has to idle at 1200 rpm to stay happy and have 12" of vacuum which is not what I expect out of the 819 grind....it also wants to have .020 lash instead of the .012-.014 I would expect for the stick per OCG's lobe catalog... so something isn't right... so I've switched to the Comp which I know is a typical grind for them and should be docile for street use... I'll sort the mystery 819A stick out later to see why it acts like a 290 duration cam....

Sometimes I swear if I didn't have bad luck... I'd have none at all....

I think I got the two cam ground from a guy that got fired at Comp then went to OCG then got fired from there....

Comp 264 and matching lifters are in.. I had to re check it like six times... the intake centerline is right on... but the lobe is ground a bit off, as the lobe opening and closing on the intake are both off from the cam card... but when you read the max lift and check the centerline of the peak using the .050 on either side of the top of the lobe it centerlines... it just really odd... I checked the exhaust lobe in paranoia and the lobe opening event is right on, but the closing event is off by 15 degrees....

I'm going to say I like the A-body better... the degree wheel fits on the engine in that bay... the F-body has the torsion bars in the way... so you have to use a small wheel....

So after checking the card, the cam and the comp website... I just said #%*#$@^(%(@!!! IT!!!! and buttoned up the timing cover and got the damper back on... about the time I got the damper back on I was putting my tools away and noticed the oil slinger in the parts/bolts bucket....

Well shoot....not going to worry about it.... tomorrow I'll get the top end
back on it... If I don't get struck by lightning, I will hopefully get to fire it off Friday after and see if I get to the next stage of stuff to fix...

Won't be at Woodburn Saturday, but am going to get August on the calender and get that Friday off so I can get some test and tune time on it...

One way or another I'm going to get to be in one race this year...

It's all back together... cold lash set at .015... need to top up the fluids...and...

I have to replace the vacuum pod on the distributor, when I started to install it I noted the pod was separating from the base... which makes me concerned, it's a brand new SMP VC-239 I got from Rockauto last month...
there's enough play that the advance plate can rock back and forth visibly... so that's good for 5 degrees of timing wobble... if the quality on these is dropping... we are going to have a problem refurbishing and recurving dizzys...

Should fire it up and see if it runs better tomorrow after work.... if so ,the I will tune it and get the other items that need attention done and get an alignment next week....

Fingers Crossed....

It was the camshaft....

Got it all prepped 4 hours ago, checked fluids, and rolled it over without the plugs...got oil to the rockers in 3 rotations, everything was good... installed the plugs and wires and fired it up...

Lit off on the first key turn... fast idled at 2300 rpm and had a nice strong 20" of vacuum... no leaks vacuum or otherwise... was a little noisy due to the loose lash... got it to low idle at 1200 rpm... adjusted the idle mix and idle screw and got it down to 930 rpm and it settles in to about 18" vacc at the rpm, 20" at 1200 rpm, and about 14-16" in R or D.... checked the tailpipes after warm up at fast idle, and its a nice humid emission, no smoke, no black muddy flecks...

I think I got a little over enthusiastic about the A904 mods... I notice that when I shift from P to R or N to R or D it slides into gear with a VERY positive *clunk* and just wants to go....

I have 18 degrees of advance at 950 rpm, and a full 50 at 2500 rpm with vacuum advance.. and it seems to be happy at any speed up to 4900 rpm in park...

So I then did the lash and set it at .012 per the cam card, motor was a little bit smoother, less sewing machine and clinking.

All the gauges and switches seem to work fine....

Wish it was aligned, I could go flog it tomorrow and see how it does...
Need to get it weighed as well so I have a reference as to how 'fat' it is...

So next up:

Replace one marker light and one rear brake light.
Put the new tags on it.
Get an alignment.
Add Tach and Vacuum gauge.
Swap out the stereo.
Wash it...

Drive it to work out the bugs...

Plan on making a race in August....

Then back to putting some time back into the Hpak Duster and get it back on the street/strip.... (and try the big block clutch conversion to see if those can live behind the 6000 rpm 12:1 fat pak clutch dump).


Think I'm going to go get some beer and chill out...

nice work.

Awesome!

It's like that scene from Young Frankenstein...making "yummy" noises....

MMMMMMmmmmm.....

Sandy is correct... nothing beats a Red Ale... especially Viking Braggot's Reverence....

Will finish tomorrow and get it for an alignment next week...

So I decided to install the tach, vacc gauge, and look at the stereo situation...


Tach went in easy, and got it hooked at the coil, but I'm tracing through the wiring (the under dash isn't as roomy as an A-body with the longer underdash panels)... have to find a source for Ign + and lights for the gauges... ground was no problem....

Working on finding a place to install the Vacc gauge, but have the tubing roughed in from under the hood and to a spot on the Dash.

Modular dash is easy to work with a few screws and clips to pull the bezel, then pull a couple more screws and the component comes right out... oddly the AM/FM 8-track had an unknown "add on" behind the dash... looks like an old style FM convertor with a port to plug a jack into from the output jack on a walkman/CD player/Mp3 player.... had to trace that back since it was piggy backing on the radio power wire as well...

Looks like the new adapter will fit and Pioneer stereo should be easy to wire up once I find out were the Radio yellow wire is at...

Looks like the dash monaural speak is still intact, the rear pacakge tray has 2 speaker perforations in it but no speakers installed in the tray...

So I will need to get some speaker wire, and a couple of oval 3 ways for the back... debating on what to do in the front for the front channel speakers... the door panels are too nice to cut holes in, and the kick panels only would allow speakers in the passenger side....due to the post 1976 E-brake pedal.

It got to be 100 today... time to cool off and take a siesta...

Directly to the left of the speedo is a square (something like 3x3.5) that is where the clock or oil pressure gauge or nothing went. If the one on the Aspen is blank, it is a great spot for a gauge.

Wasn't there a board member selling brackets to mount two speakers in the center dash hole?