I need some help refernce a cam swap Im doing. I have the engine torn down and the cams exposed. I however cant get the timing cover to budge at the bottom around the crank shaft area. I have the timing cover cracked open from the top to about half way down the sides. We have scoured the engine front and back of the cover looking for any possible hidden screws or bolts holding it inplace but nothing. When the cams were done the first time, a boatload of some grey rtv sealant was used to reseal the cover. Can that possibly be the problem?? We went as far as applying a small torch to the sealant in the stuck area with no luck on budging it. Got any ideas???? Im at a loss...

 

Did you get the bolts from underneath? The oil pan has to be removed to get to it.

 

Thank you gents. I never woulda thought to look in the oil pan for bolts.

 

Do people not bother looking in the FSM or Haynes manual anymore?

 

I have to ask, what cams are you putting in?

 

good luck with install. Is it in the car?

 

When I was tearing apart an engine, the Haynes didnt' say to take off oil pan...... I had to ask SR20

 

I am taking out the JWT S1 cams and putting the stockers back in. Cams have been swapped and all the gears and timing chain are all correctly aligned. I did find some engine damage that i may thank Dyno comp for when they did the install last time. They missed the upper chain tensioner on the right bank and it had fallen all the way out causing the timing chain to be loose and it was slapping around in there and caused some damage. Fortunately the chain and cam gears were unharmed. Looking at the timing chain it was not lined up correctly on the gears so who knows how bad my timing was off. Also one of the belt tensioners was missing a bolt and just laying there loose.

 

I don't mean to rub salt in your wounds or state the obvious but I hope you took some photos and intend to take some action. Especially for what they charged you.

 

You betcha I did! They are hearing from me tomorrow morning.

 

Wow Thats why they felt like crap . Didnt you dyno with them and still pull decent numbers?

 

Yea I managed to hit 241hp and 216tq on a dynojet. I just cant stand not having the nice torque numbers which is why im going back to stock. The cams gained me 13hp on the top end which isnt worth the torque loss to me.

 

How much torque did they lose you?

 

Well from my comparisons to other dynos minus the cams its between 20-25.

 

If the cams weren't installed properly, shouldn't you install them correctly and re-dyno before you give up on them?

 

That would be the case but by the time i realized it i was not going to turn back.

Anyhow the job is done and the car started on the first try... Im a happy friggin camper. What an experience this cam job was, hopefully i never do it again... Car sounds 1000 times better and the low end power is back. Never thought I'd be happy to have torque steer.

 

If the timing was that badly off, that could explain the severe low end TQ loss you were experiencing...

I can't stand when shops do shoddy work...

 

Are you sellin the cams?

 

I have not decided on that yet. Ill definately keep you in mind if you are interested.

 

Glad the cars back to normal, alteast now you can drive it w/o getting pissed off about the loss of torque

 

Yea no kidding. I have been driving like a crazy man, blown through a ton of gas in two days.

 

show up during your shift

 

was the cam timing off, how many teeth ? was it advanced or retarded ? I had a bad timing chain tensioner in my SE-R and it caused my HP and TQ to be all weird, I gained some top end, but lost a butt load of power on low end- with stock cams never the less. Car idled like crap, and it ran super hot. I'm guessing you had your cams retarded ?

 

We had that same problem on my 96 maxima when I was doing some timing chain work. The dam bolts are hidden under the dam oil pan, what a pain it was finding out...

 

Now it just leaves me to wonder how they would have performed if they were installed properly.

I've been thinking of this someime soon, but still have to research the grinds I would want.

He still had the highest top 5, I thought was top 3 HP for n/a 5.5g Maxima.

 

I doubt much different, I've seen similar results on 350Zs with JWT cams.

They suck until 4000rpm, then come alive for a modest top-end gain. Nothing to write home about and IMHO not worth the loss.

Once someone figures out how to tweak the VTC programming and add Nismo pulleys, it should help bring the low-end back and increase top-end more.

 

I guess until then,