No worries. I think I have enough spare original timing parts to put together a good condition set from original Chrysler parts. However, at this point my money is on the bolt having come loose on the end of the cam gear and the cam gear wobbled off the locating peg. With luck, my brother can just reset the MP timing set and reinstall the bolt with some Loctite. He is going to try and open up the front end of the motor before this weekend and see if a loose cam bolt is the problem.

Worst case scenario I order the parts to build a Cloyes double roller set. Prices these days will put a double roller set made from Cloyes parts at about $120.

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Casually looking for a Clifford hyperpak intake for cheap.

Well, the verdict is in. My brother got the timing chain cover off today and discovered that the cam gear hold-down bolt had, in fact come loose. This is odd because I know I torqued it down correctly the last time I was in there about a year ago. The bad news is that it appears the cam gear wobbled on the bolt and snapped the locator peg on the cam off, so the cam is toast.





The good news is that the MP timing set appears to be holding up just fine after ten years of service.

So now the plan is to pull the custom ground cam out of the motor and install a hydraulic cam and lifter set so my brother doesn't have to adjust the valves ever again. I know there will be a big drop in performance since the motor will be loosing the custom ground cam and will be getting the anemic stock hydraulic profile cam, but I think a low-maintenance cam (read no valve adjustments) would be better in the long run.

Now to dig out all the necessary parts for a hydraulic cam swap from the garage. I know they are in there, I just have to find them.

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Casually looking for a Clifford hyperpak intake for cheap.

So you don't want a custom hydraulic grind from Oregon shipped to your door? I'll even take the core down myself!

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Joshua

Reed why not try to put a new pin in the cam. You could drill a hole in the broken pin and tap the hole for a small bolt, using the bolt and a nut larger than the thread (feature a small gear puller)


Richard

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Part of Tyrde-Browne Racing

Well, its like this, if it were MY motor, I would be happy to try and repair the cam and re use it. I would also be happy to try a custom ground hydraulic cam. However, the motor is in my brother's van, and my brother is not very mechanically inclined. Ever since I put the custom ground cam in the motor, he has been leery about it and worried about adjusting the valves and valve noise. He has never felt confident about adjusting the valves, which is why he really wants a hydraulic cam in his Duster. He is just much more comfortable with a stock camshaft because he knows it is a factory designed and approved item. I don't blame him, really. He doesn't have the experience and knowledge about cars that I do, or the tools to fix things.

Additionally, the only day we both have off from work to fix his van is this coming Saturday, so I need to use materials I have on hand. That means using the hydraulic valvetrain pieces I have on hand (except for new lifters). I would love to try a custom grind, but I couldn't get it here before this coming Saturday.

I will keep the cam and lifters (and label which lobe each lifter came off of) and try installing a new peg. Lately I have been looking through all the extra drivetrain parts I will have left over once I get my brother's van and his Duster put back together and I realize I will have an extra slant six and 904 transmission. This has got me thinking about building a special slant six motor to go into my 83 Dodge van in place of the 318 in there now. I will have a custom cam, a head that has ben rebuilt but milled to significantly increase compression, a rebuilt 904 with a shift kit. What more will I need? I will also have built two fuel injection systems for my brother's slant sixes using Ford parts, so I should be able to put together another one for my van. A custom built "truck" motor built specifically for torque and MPG would be a fun project.

I really appreciate the offer Josh, but I just don't think the cam would get here in time. I need to get this whole project done this Saturday.

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Casually looking for a Clifford hyperpak intake for cheap.

OK- quick update. We got the broken mechanical cam pulled and the hydraulic cam and valve train swapped in. I made some interesting discoveries regarding differences between the hydraulic and the mechanical valve trains. Also ran into a few problems.

For Ted, here is a picture of the Mopar Performance double roller timing set. It has held up well and is still in good shape.



Here is a video I took of us trying to start the motor up after the cam swap. It is important to note that I took the video with my iPhone while holding the iPhone in my left hand and adjusting the distributor with my right hand. Watch it for the last three seconds. This video demonstrates the need to have good condition spark plug wires that prevent loose spark from escaping. I'm sure we all can relate. (It is about 20 megs, so slow internet bandwidth users beware! Sorry, I don't know how to compress videos)

CLICK ME FOR VIDEO

Oh, yeah, Delta Camshaft in Tacoma says that they can repair the busted locating dowel for $18. Sounds like a deal to me.

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Casually looking for a Clifford hyperpak intake for cheap.

Quite a while back Doc had mentioned something to help in case this might happen.

Once you have the cam installed and degreed how you like it, drill a second hole through the gear and nose of the cam and install a second pin 180 degrees from the original...This way it will be indexed correctly, and you have a backup incase one or the other breaks...

I had to do this with the Hpak duster's original rebuild.

-D.Idiot

That is a very good idea! I will do that on the next motor I build. The good Doctor strikes again.

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Casually looking for a Clifford hyperpak intake for cheap.