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I'm pasting this from a Fiero forum, so some things might not make sense:
Well. I was determined! Since my engine block was practically brand new (30k miles), I was gonna make some simple modifications and see if I can get a hydraulic roller cam setup. I'm using a 3.4 GM crate engine. I had it installed a few years ago by Pisa Corp. It should be pretty much the exact same for a stock 2.8. I first did some research to see how hard it was to get a roller cam for the engine. I was recommended to a local company called Delta Camshafts, which just happened to be located in downtown Tacoma. They told me they could make the camshaft, but they couldn't help me with the lifters. So I did some research. I called pretty much any camshaft manufacturer in the country. I was hoping I could find a set of small block chevy hydraulic roller lifters with a detachable link bar. No luck. I guess a few companies had made roller lifters for a gen I 60 degree V6 in the past, but nobody made them currently. So ventured out and bought the cheapest set of SBC hyd. roller lifters that I could find that were sold in pairs. (SLP-HT5000RA from Summit at about $54 per pair). I bought six of them, and when I got them, I took a gander at them. I looked to see exactly how much shorter the link bars had to be to fit in the V6's bores. I came up with approximately 0.58 inches. I also did a test to see exactly how much of them ended up hitting the bottom of the intake manifold. I determined that with alot of cutting, welding, and grinding, it crazy nonsense just my work!!!
First, I found out I had to grind alittle bit of metal off of both cylinder heads in order for cylinders 3 and 4's lifter's link bars to clear the head. About 5-10 minutes with the die grinder, and I had that fixed (sorry no picts - may get some later).
Second, I looked a the crowns of the lifters. There was no way to dissassemble the lifters to keep debris out of them, since the link bar rivets were pressed in, and I would just butcher them trying to remove and install them. So I left the guts in. I began to grind away at the lifter crowns to remove enough metal to clear the intake manifold when the lifters meet the top of the cam lobes. This was incredibly tiresome. It took approximately 20 minutes of grinding per lifter. I tried the best I could to try and not get the lifters too hot by going to fast. Actually, I think 20 minutes per lifter was actually too fast, I did get some of them alittle hotter than I wanted. But it looks like all of them turned out to be alright. Since I didn't take out all the lifter guts, I took special care in cleaning all the excess metal out from the lifter. Since tollerances are so tight, there should have been slim to none of the metal shavings being able to get into the lifter. I made sure I cleaned them out as best as I could with some solvent. I tested them also to make sure they weren't binding up, and they all seemed to move very smoothly.
Now was the time to tackle the link bars. I had to shorten them quite a bit to make them work. So I measured to approximately 0.58 inches and began to cut away. Since I absolutely stink ass at welding, I gave them to one of my co-workers to weld. So he threw an even bead on them and ground up the excess. I gave them a stress test and all of them seemed to be fairly strong.
Well, I first did all the modifying to the first pair of lifters. I figured, if this one failed to work, I could send the other 5 back for a refund. But I tossed that first one in the block. I threw my stock cam back in and did a clearance test. All seemed just dandy! The lifter cleared the intake manifold. The linkbar cleared the cylinder head. The linkbar was also just the right length. So I did the same to the other 5 pairs.
After that, it turned out that 3 of the 6 pairs of lifter's link bars will still just a boob too long. I guess my cutting wasn't as accurate as I wanted it to be. I ended up having a custom welding shop cut the link bars again and shorten up some more.
Finally, all 6 pairs are properly modified and ready to go!
Time for a camshaft! I wanted something that would pull to about 6000 rpm. So I wanted something that still kept a good idle, good drivability, but also greatly improved midrange power! I waddled back over to Delta Camshafts. We looked at my stock cam and stock 60 degree roller cam. Sure enough, the roller cam will work easily in the non-roller block. Bearing sizes are the same, bearing and lobe placements are the same. Distributor gears are the same. Only thing was different was the method the gear bolts on. Since the roller cam was a single bolt, and the flat tappet cam used 3 bolts, a new timing set was in order. So I had them order me up a new timing set for the roller cam. I also wanted a custom grind for my new cam. I informed him on my build, and what I expected. I kept it realistic, so this made it easy for him to grind up. He had a blank core in stock, and told me he'd grind it the next day, and it should be done the day after. Bam!! Camshaft's done!! I now have a roller cam with .467/.488 valve lift with 1.5 rockers. 218/226 @ 0.050 duration. This should easily work the way I want it to! So what was the charge on this fantastic custom grind? I walked in expecting to pay $300-500 easily for the cam. Holy Crap!!!! $135!!!! These guys are awesome!!!!!
So anyway. All I had to do was buy a $5 cam gear bolt. I'm gonna have to set up a cam button to prevent walking. I haven't installed it yet, since my engine is still getting machined. But it should work. The biggest thing I'm worried about are the welds. I'm fearing that they might crack and break. They don't get put into any stress, but they could still crack from the vibration. As long as those hold up, everything should work just fine. All the oil recesses are in the proper spots, so everything else should be fine. Here's the picts:
http://216.240.155.171/dfireweb/Smeg/Camshaft/
Well. I was determined! Since my engine block was practically brand new (30k miles), I was gonna make some simple modifications and see if I can get a hydraulic roller cam setup. I'm using a 3.4 GM crate engine. I had it installed a few years ago by Pisa Corp. It should be pretty much the exact same for a stock 2.8. I first did some research to see how hard it was to get a roller cam for the engine. I was recommended to a local company called Delta Camshafts, which just happened to be located in downtown Tacoma. They told me they could make the camshaft, but they couldn't help me with the lifters. So I did some research. I called pretty much any camshaft manufacturer in the country. I was hoping I could find a set of small block chevy hydraulic roller lifters with a detachable link bar. No luck. I guess a few companies had made roller lifters for a gen I 60 degree V6 in the past, but nobody made them currently. So ventured out and bought the cheapest set of SBC hyd. roller lifters that I could find that were sold in pairs. (SLP-HT5000RA from Summit at about $54 per pair). I bought six of them, and when I got them, I took a gander at them. I looked to see exactly how much shorter the link bars had to be to fit in the V6's bores. I came up with approximately 0.58 inches. I also did a test to see exactly how much of them ended up hitting the bottom of the intake manifold. I determined that with alot of cutting, welding, and grinding, it crazy nonsense just my work!!!
First, I found out I had to grind alittle bit of metal off of both cylinder heads in order for cylinders 3 and 4's lifter's link bars to clear the head. About 5-10 minutes with the die grinder, and I had that fixed (sorry no picts - may get some later).
Second, I looked a the crowns of the lifters. There was no way to dissassemble the lifters to keep debris out of them, since the link bar rivets were pressed in, and I would just butcher them trying to remove and install them. So I left the guts in. I began to grind away at the lifter crowns to remove enough metal to clear the intake manifold when the lifters meet the top of the cam lobes. This was incredibly tiresome. It took approximately 20 minutes of grinding per lifter. I tried the best I could to try and not get the lifters too hot by going to fast. Actually, I think 20 minutes per lifter was actually too fast, I did get some of them alittle hotter than I wanted. But it looks like all of them turned out to be alright. Since I didn't take out all the lifter guts, I took special care in cleaning all the excess metal out from the lifter. Since tollerances are so tight, there should have been slim to none of the metal shavings being able to get into the lifter. I made sure I cleaned them out as best as I could with some solvent. I tested them also to make sure they weren't binding up, and they all seemed to move very smoothly.
Now was the time to tackle the link bars. I had to shorten them quite a bit to make them work. So I measured to approximately 0.58 inches and began to cut away. Since I absolutely stink ass at welding, I gave them to one of my co-workers to weld. So he threw an even bead on them and ground up the excess. I gave them a stress test and all of them seemed to be fairly strong.
Well, I first did all the modifying to the first pair of lifters. I figured, if this one failed to work, I could send the other 5 back for a refund. But I tossed that first one in the block. I threw my stock cam back in and did a clearance test. All seemed just dandy! The lifter cleared the intake manifold. The linkbar cleared the cylinder head. The linkbar was also just the right length. So I did the same to the other 5 pairs.
After that, it turned out that 3 of the 6 pairs of lifter's link bars will still just a boob too long. I guess my cutting wasn't as accurate as I wanted it to be. I ended up having a custom welding shop cut the link bars again and shorten up some more.
Finally, all 6 pairs are properly modified and ready to go!
Time for a camshaft! I wanted something that would pull to about 6000 rpm. So I wanted something that still kept a good idle, good drivability, but also greatly improved midrange power! I waddled back over to Delta Camshafts. We looked at my stock cam and stock 60 degree roller cam. Sure enough, the roller cam will work easily in the non-roller block. Bearing sizes are the same, bearing and lobe placements are the same. Distributor gears are the same. Only thing was different was the method the gear bolts on. Since the roller cam was a single bolt, and the flat tappet cam used 3 bolts, a new timing set was in order. So I had them order me up a new timing set for the roller cam. I also wanted a custom grind for my new cam. I informed him on my build, and what I expected. I kept it realistic, so this made it easy for him to grind up. He had a blank core in stock, and told me he'd grind it the next day, and it should be done the day after. Bam!! Camshaft's done!! I now have a roller cam with .467/.488 valve lift with 1.5 rockers. 218/226 @ 0.050 duration. This should easily work the way I want it to! So what was the charge on this fantastic custom grind? I walked in expecting to pay $300-500 easily for the cam. Holy Crap!!!! $135!!!! These guys are awesome!!!!!
So anyway. All I had to do was buy a $5 cam gear bolt. I'm gonna have to set up a cam button to prevent walking. I haven't installed it yet, since my engine is still getting machined. But it should work. The biggest thing I'm worried about are the welds. I'm fearing that they might crack and break. They don't get put into any stress, but they could still crack from the vibration. As long as those hold up, everything should work just fine. All the oil recesses are in the proper spots, so everything else should be fine. Here's the picts:
http://216.240.155.171/dfireweb/Smeg/Camshaft/
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