Stuck cam cog bolts

[DOHC fiero]

Hey guys, I have been looking at these forums for a few quite a while and finally decided to join. I am doing a 3.4 dohc engine swap from a '97 monte Carlo to my '85 Fireo. The engine is being rebuild by me to keep things wallet friendly All was going well till it was time to remove the cams. It seems that the cam cog bolts are either really really tight, frozen, or I am doing something wrong.
I'm tempted to just leave the cam carrier alone and stick them back onto the heads when they go back onto the block but there is a bit of dirt in the cam carrier, also the shaft seals might need to be replaced.
This is just about driving me crazy. Almost to the point of me wanting to break out a torch to heat those bolts up(probably not a good idea).

[pocket-rocket]

I wouldn't use a torch on the cams. I would use a good strong impact though. If it doesn't come off with a good one you might want to look for a new set of carriers and cams.

Sent from my HTC One X using Tapatalk

[DOHC fiero]

Danm. Was on those things with an impact wrench and they didn't budge. Maybe I have an excuse to get a larger impact wrench.
The heads, cams, and cam carriers are not matched sets for the later or earlier 3.4 dohc right? Any of the '97 carriers will work with the '97 heads?

[pocket-rocket]

I have to 600ft/lb (@90psi, my compressor is set at 120 turn on and 150 cut off and I've shaped bolts with the impact) Ingersoll-Rand sold at Lowe's and love it.

The carriers change over just fine. If you are using the PCM from the Monte, or any other PCM you will need a 94 or 95 and later from carrier. I forgot if it was 94 or 95 that went to SFI on the LQ1.

The 97 carriers will work just fine on the 91-96 engines, but the 97 went to 33mm bucket lifters where as the earlier engines had 35mm lifters, so if you go to an earlier set you will need the lifters as well.

The later engines (96 and 97, possibly 95 but I don't recall) also had round toothed timing belts and the earlier ones had square teeth so keep that in mind as well. 91-93 also had lock ring style pulley locks and the 94-97 had the collet style which are much easier to work with. Hope this helps.

Sent from my HTC One X using Tapatalk

[DOHC fiero]

Thank you very much Pocket-Rocket. Im going to start looking around for a set of cam carriers.
Love that signature. Very true lol

[pocket-rocket]

Not a problem.

I forgot to mention the difference between the early MPFI and later SFI carriers. The SFI ones have a spot for an intake cam position sensor (which is why the front valve cover, in FWD cars, has a notch out of the upper right corner.

If the signature is the one I think it is (never turn my pc on anymore, always post from my phone) by Jay Leno about tires being cheap clutches, lol, I believe it was the Jay Leno's Garage episode with his C6 ZR1. Love that show.

Sent from my HTC One X using Tapatalk

[DOHC fiero]

Got the carriers separated from the cams. Yay! Just had to be a little rough with them.
Put the ends opposite of the cogs on a big bench-mounted vise, got on the bolts with a 15mm wrench with a BIG pipe on the end and they broke loose. I found the issue on why they were so hard to remove; some idiot used RED LOCKTIGHT on the damn things. The vise didnt seem to damage the cams so all is good
And I was talking about the jay Leno line. Makes me grin thinking about it when driving. And again thank you Pocket-rocket for the quick reply.