Great Job James these are great pictures as this is the Job I have to do with my oil eak behind the sprocket. To recap do you hold the cam and turn the crowsfoot on the nut countercock wise ?

from everything i have read you have to remove the tensioner and use some oher device to tension the chain so it doesn't fall off the main drive sproket. The tensioner is in the way of the cam sproket.

Make sure to post pics with the sproket exposed and coming off..

Thanks James ..

PS just washed the car and put her away for good after getting back from BC.

 

Ps James autohausaz I saw was having a clearance on chain ramp sets. looks like you may as well change them ... When you get the sproket off their will be a series of spacer shims, make sure you twist tie them together and mark which side they are from as they have to go back exactly the same amount. I am getting confused with your engine upside down but I got it now. Also I think there is a spacer available to put on your tensioner so if it does collape it will not collapse totally and save your engine ( cheap part ) I thought originally it was only for spring but have heard it is also used on pressure fed, perhaps someone with more info could chime in.
Did you also get the dial inicator so you can retime your cams ? That looks interesting for sure. At least now you will be able to see the the gasket that is leaking on my car, apparently it is behind the sprocket somewhere and stops oil leaking down the chain box.

 

When you say away for good, how for good are we talkin?

Help...Help...it's happening again...slippery slope...must not slide any further...Help...

Chain ramp sets? Spacer? Well if I must I will, but the ramps look great.

Yes, you got it right. The crowsfoot is the one that you torque counterclock. The central protrusion is actually the end of the cam, and when you take the big nut off you see the threads on the end of the cam. So it is like a big screw. Bentley just barely mentions taking off the tensioners. p 102-11. Wayne's book mentions you take the nuts and tensioners off both sides, then the sprockets come off.

"Now is the time on Schprockets when we dance."

Couldn't resist.

Couldn't find a dial indicator so I think I'll wing it.

Ok, I'll stop.

Gotta go. Someone with unstable angina. Time to lay some pavement.

 

Well Just till the spring .. I kep sayin gthat and getting it back out but it is snowing tonight so I think that is about it .... I don't have any real projects lined up either other than fixing the mesh on the tail .

 

I had to work alot this weekend. But I got alot done in 10 minutes tonight. Bentley rocks. If only I would follow directions. First photo shows how I locked the tensioner with a really skinny punch from my sears punch set. I used some little channel locks to lift the idler off the tensioner. No more tension, and the next photo shows the idler off. It is amazing how it seemed like it would never come off last night. With the tension removed, the tensioner just glides off the dowel. Photo: See how the idler is completely off the chain now?

Next two photos show the sprocket coming off. It is like a double bicycle gear. You have to use your fingers to get the sprocket free from the chain. Photo: Here is the parts in order of removal for my future ref.

Here is the photo you were asking about Iceman. I take it your leak is coming from back there?

 

Pics look great JAmes

I am dying to see what is behind that plate. I have a smaller gasket and a big orange o-ring. I would be curious as to what it looks like.. Looks like a Ton of work for me to fix one small oil leak...

i double checked and the site I use did indicate t use the spacer on the hydraulic tensioner also... might be worth asking on Pelican.
That board moves to fast for me. I'm just old and slow... like my car ..

 

Iceman,
Here is the photo you were asking for. I aim to please! This is the backside of the camshaft end cover. My friend Tony came over to help. Took an hour. Photo: End cover retaining bolts out with the tiny socket set from Sears. 10mm. Photo: Then the sprocket flange came off easily. Photo: I always wondered what the Woodruff key looked like. Who was this Woodruff guy? I noticed quite a bit of scratches on my woodruff, so I suspect my cam has had some work on it in the past. Photo: Here is a cool way to remove the shims. Harbor Freight magnet, 3 bucks. Much better than sticking a screwdriver in there. I had 4 shims plus the thrust spacer.

Then we realized the rockers had to come out. Although I did as told and carfully set the pulley to Z1, and then rotated 120 deg for each cylinder, I am not sure this was really necessary. The rockers were already very loose after backing off the adjustment screws all the way. But did it anyways. 2 Photos: here is one rocker bolt and also the rockershaft coming out with the rocker.

Then to get the endcover off I first tried to use a small screwdriver and pry it out. Didn't work. But then I put the big cam nut on and used it to carefully pull the cam out and the endcover came off (photo). Here are 2 photos of the cam out, then a photo of all my rockers on the left side bagged and tagged. Last photo: Here is the cam housing. See the black dirt at 2 o'clock? That part is exposed to outside the engine. If your cam end cover gasket is leaking, it would spill out here and go down I guess between the cam timing housing and the cam housing.

My left cam looks fine. No cam lobe pitting on this side. Now part of me wishes I hadn't taken it out. But I'll get it ground to 964 shape and regrind the rocker faces. The rocker bushings and shafts all looked very nice, so I won't get them rebushed. I figure that's 4 bucks a rocker and 275 or so for the regrind. It really was a lot of fun. I like turning the pulley and hearing the pistons make pressurized noises. It is very reminiscent of the heart.

Ice I think you could replace your cam end plate cover off with the engine in if you could get the cam timing cover off. I think you would have to retime the cams, so you would have to take the valve covers off. But you can't get the cams out without doing some degree of engine drop. Now that would be a fun winter project!

 

Wow great pics. I can now see what my little green gaskets do as well as the big orange o rings I have. I think for me the big problem would be getting the big *** nut off the cam with the engine still in the car. I would not want to risk damaging the body. I don't have a lift either so it could be tough work. I have the esactl leak you are talking bout so it looks like I have the right gaskets anyway. amn you should have written an article for excellence, they for sure would have printed it and it would hve been way more interesting than there glasier 356 project ...snore...

 

Well thank you Ice, but this is newbie stuff so it is probably cool to just guys like you and me.

I was thinking about your leak. I agree, it would be hard to get leverage on the cam nut without the inside of the engine bay getting in the way. You wouldn't need to take the cams out though. I say go for it and drop the engine and tranny. I think that would be much easier than trying to remove the engine alone, at least for a first timer. When Doug was here helping me, we didn't even consider not dropping the tranny, and he has dropped alot of engines with a race team plus his car. I think the only hard part of the engine drop is the undoing of all the wires and tubes and stuff. Then you just support the back end of the engine with a jack (probably easier with a wide jack and big fiberboard) and support the tranny with a floor jack, then undo all four mounts. Then you just pull back a little and watch the tranny linkage come out of the center tunnel so you don't ding it when you lower the combination. To do your seal, leaving the engine on the floor on top of wood would be fine. You would still have all kinds of room to get your cam end plate out. And tune up and seal the engine. The only hard part would be the valve adjustment on the lowers. If your car is out of commision for the winter, you should just go for it.

 

well lets just see if yours goes back together first :-)

just kidden..

As I am sure you have found out it will take a few bucks to get yours back together. I plan on doing the same as you exactly, but I htink I will wait till the clutch goes or the leak gets REALLY bad..

 

Ha, Ouch, That's my biggest fear...

Not the cost, but the puttin back together. Turnin the key and no fire...

I think I have bought almost everything I need. I bought most of it in the planning stages. The cam thing threw me off, so I will have to buy your seals for instance. The only thing I need more of is time. Time or patience. If only I were retired, then I could concentrate. Anyways, I am gonna take a break from all of this. In My country we have this thing with the Pilgrims...

 

I hear Thanksgiving in the US is bigger than Christmas ... A great long weekend for working on the car right ? :-)

 

Probably is. Mostly secular, pretty broad base of people cellebrate it.. I mean.. I'm VERY thakful for what I have and the fact I'll have 4 days to work on CARS!!!!

 

my sentiments exactly ...

 

Actually james one of our local guys Bob just did what you did. If you remember he was the guy that somehow broke the rings on all tree cylinders on one side of the engine. He put his car back together and it looks and sounds great so I am not to woried .. if you can put real hearts back together an engine should be no problem ..just make sure you wear gloves when dealing with those people so you don;t get dirt in your engine :-)

I think the cam timing is the critical thing and making sure about those oil leaks.