bigmacdave

Hello all.

First i want to say thank you for all the help, both with the questions i ask and the wealth of info I'm finding doing many searches.

So i am in the middle of putting the cam tower back on after replacing the head. If you follow any of my post, i have a 87' that i have had for awhile i bought on the cheap because the owner shredded the timing belt. Well anyway, needless to say, i had several bent valves. i had the head machined and all new hardware put in. I recently put the head back on and now the cam tower. If anyone wants to see some cool before and afters, ill gladly post them, Just figured everyone has seen pictures of the dreaded bent valve situation before.

My question is, does anyone put some (maybe a little) oil in the top before putting the plugs back on? everything is obviously dry up there, besides a little assembly lube, I don't want to be hard on it the first time i turn it over.

Thank you again

David

harveyf

Can't hurt, as long is who just put in a squirt. You don't want to hydrolock the poor thing.

Be prepared for a mighty clatter when you first start it up, as the oil feed cam followers might need a short time to also fill with oil and stabilize.

I'm curious. How many valves did you find to be bent?

bigmacdave

Well its easier to count which ones weren't bent. Only three were still true All the rest, in the mud.

smkn951

i put my lifters in an oil filled jar and pulled a vacuum on it to fill rhe lifters then put each on in another containers filled with oil til i was ready to install them. i also put a bit of oil in the cam when installed. stater it up and it smoked a bit but its cleared up

harveyf

Wow, pretty substantial damage! I had a guy call me just last night to inquire about repair to a 951 that had the timing belt let go. I guess we'll expect the worst

bigmacdave

I think I'm going to leave the plugs off (loose) and syringe some oil on the cam and lifters during the first turn over. then close it up when i see oil moving around. does that seem like a bad idea?

Scott at Team Harco

Overkill. Lube the cam lobes when installing. Soak the lifters in an oil bath.

Once fully assembled and ready to start: crank the engine a few times with the plugs removed. If you see oil pressure register on the gauge, put the plugs in and try to start it. The lifters will still probably clatter for a while as the trapped air gets forced out.