How to change your cam on your 6 cylinder OHC Falcon

[EFFalcon]

How to change your cam on your 6 cylinder OHC Falcon
By John_xr6

Pictures will be up as soon as the server is ready Wink
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NOTE: The E-Series Owners Club and the writers of the articles take no responsibility for any damage or problems or grief that may be a result of following one of our articles. Make sure you know what you are doing, are confident and competent before commencing any activity. You do so at your own risk!
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Tools Required
Torque Wrench
Ratchet
Breaker Bar
7mm socket (if changing rocker covers)
10mm socket
13mm socket
17mm socket
22mm socket
Spark plug socket
Various extension bars
Screw driver
Small hammer
Shifter

Step 1
Remove all things which cross over the rocker cover and which go on it. These include: Sparkplug leads, Accelerator Cable, Cruise Control Cable(if fitted), PCV Valve Hose and Manifold Vacuum Hose (back of rocker cover) I also removed the sparkplugs, Brake booster hose and the Air Box.

Step 2
Undo the 4 nuts holding the rocker cover on using the 13 mm socket. Push the brake booster hose out of the way and remove the rocker cover. The rocker cover may be sealed on tight so use a screw driver and the small hammer to wedge in between the rocker cover and the gasket. Be careful not to damage the top of the cylinder head. Once the seal is broken you need to remove the cover it can be quite tricky so be patient.

Your engine bay should now look something like this.

Step 3
Rotate the motor using the 22mm socket on the harmonic balancer bolt until one of the no 6 cylinder rockers is rocking. Now get 4 pieces of lint free cloth and jam them into the oil holes so when the rockers are removed no pieces which may fall off can go into the sump. Source a cable tie and zip it on to the cam gear and chain so it doesn’t move. You must now only crack the cam bolt to avoid difficulty later on. Use the 17mm socket and a breaker bar and just give it a sharp quick hit with the palm of your hand to break the seal.

Now remove the rockers bolts one full turn at a time working from the ends in using the 10mm socket. repeat this until all tension is relieved then remove the rockers.

Your engine bay should look something like this now.

Step 4
Now source another camshaft or get yours re ground, and oil the camshaft journals. I’m using an ultra low Km EF unit.

Heres mine.

Step 5
Once your new cam is ready remove the old one. Get someone to use a shaft in between the holes on the cam gear to provide enough tension on it so the chain tensioner doesn’t spring out causing it to be too tight later on. Remove the bolt and tap the gear off gently with a small hammer. remove the old cam and insert new one. line up the dowel pin on the gear with the slot in the cam and tap the cam gear back on to the cam, apply some loctite to the end threads on the cam bolt and tighten it to finger tight. Your assistant can now remove the shaft from the cam gear holes. You must now tighten the cam bolt to 50 Nm. Use a large screwdriver and a rag to slot in a cam gear hole to stop it from rotating when tensioning it.

Should look something like this now

Step 6
Now re install your rockers. This time work from the middle bolts out in a clockwise direction. Do them up finger tight first then one turn at a time until all bolts no longer become soft to turn meaning its fully down but not overly tight. Now use the tension wrench and tighten each one to 25 Nm working from the middle out again. Once this is done quickly go over each bolt on the same tension to guarantee each bolt is tight. Once this is done rotate the motor a few times on the harmonic balancer bolt to make sure it turns nicely and nothing hits. Line up the timing mark on the harmonic balancer to TDC and make sure the line in the cam gear is about 3mm above the top surface of the head. if it’s way off rotate the crank 1 full turn again. this is just to make sure the timing chain hasn’t slipped a tooth. Don’t forget to remove the 4 pieces of cloth too.

Step7
Now is a good time to paint your rocker cover if you wish, I decided to put a Tickford one on and swapped my PCV valve and lead holders from my original cover to my new one. you will need a 7mm to remove the lead holders. also get a new PCV valve rubber from ford.

here’s mine.

Step 8
Clean up your rocker cover gasket surface removing all old dirt and silicon. Install you new gasket with a bead of silicon around the half moons (EA-ED only). I used a one piece rubber one as it is less prone to leaks. Now bolt your rocker cover back on. Tighten the bolts to 6 Nm working from middle outwards.

Should look like this now.

Step 9
Clean up the engine bay a bit if you want. I used some Orange Force Spray and Wipe stuff, works great. Re install all hoses, cables, sparkplugs etc.

Final product should look like this now.

Step 10
Start it up and take it for a drive. Now be glad that you’ve saved your self heaps of $$$ by not taking it to a mechanic to get it fitted. its easy to do it yourself if you have a bit of knowledge and the right tools.

[G3R3N]

Any pictures as yet?

[John_LS1]

this was written ages ago by me. there was pictures but theres not much to look at ill have a look see if there on photobucket.

[John_LS1]

its actually of when i changed my headgasket but same process

[Amon]

did u use silicon with the rocker cover gasket?

i did mine up to wat i thought would be ok (tight but not overtight)... didnt know there were torque specifications for the rocker cover...

also i didnt use silicon... seems to be alright tho...

[Airved]

Man, I wanted to do my own cam, but didn't know how and wasn't gonna risk it without some sort of diagram. Least if it fucks up, I can go whinge to someone!

[John_LS1]

did u use silicon with the rocker cover gasket?

i did mine up to wat i thought would be ok (tight but not overtight)... didnt know there were torque specifications for the rocker cover...

also i didnt use silicon... seems to be alright tho...

there is a tourqe spec but i cant remember what it is. you have to be carefull to not overtighten the rocker cover as they can crack easily. I only used silicon on the half moons.

[ORSMEB]

Thanks for this writeup John, I will use it very soon!

[Sunboost]

Yeah very nice work pics would help but.

[edfamily]

still no picks?

[FOR.0EL]

yeah any pics happening?

me and my dad have gotta change my headgasket over soon as its on its way out :S
so in the process i was thinking it would be mega simple to change the camshaft as you have to remove the original one anyway to do the headgasket? correct me if im wrong
Thanks

[Rollin]

You can take the head off without removing the rocker gear and cam, but it's not hard to swap the cam while you do the head, as you'll already have the cam gear off the front and the timing chain slack etc.

[rab]

whats the cost supplied and fitted for a lumpy cam from a shop ? nice lumpy idle and good mid range grunt but not to the point it wont idle...if ye know what i mean.. i know damn all about this modification..

[FordFairmont]

whats the cost supplied and fitted for a lumpy cam from a shop ? nice lumpy idle and good mid range grunt but not to the point it wont idle...if ye know what i mean.. i know damn all about this modification..

Ive had a few different Wade cams in my car, and found them to be great value
http://www.wadecams.com/ ....... click on 'popular profiles'

unfortunately, a lumpy idle in our eseries equates to top end power & nothing down low. Plus you have to spend money on other things like stronger valve springs, chip & tuning, shorter diff gears & high stall for auto etc.

Price works out to $180 for a regrind cam after postage costs, plus extra shims for the lifters, cost depending on whether you buy new or from wreckers.

brand new billet cam costs $395 plus post

[rab]

1673 looks to be the one.. just need to email about fitting as brissy is too far to travel from to vic

[FordFairmont]

1673 looks to be the one.. just need to email about fitting as brissy is too far to travel from to vic

you will find alot of mechanics probably wouldnt even know what a shim is. I had a sour experience getting my first cam fitted by a so-called mechanic. Ive changed mine around since, more times than i can remember.

make the 2.5 hour trip up to Warwick, and i'll fit it for $80. All you need is the cam, and a set of 12 shims for the lifters (theres already 1 factory shim in each lifter from the factory, you need an extra one in each lifter)

also, because you have an EL, you need to know if it has a AU hybrid head as this requires a different cam. Can check the model number on the front of the head, or can remove the rocker cover and see if it has the AU conical valve springs (beehive shape)

[rab]

will look now..

[FOR.0EL]

Any photos yet? im looking to give this a crack as reading the whole lot a whole lot of times is sorta clear to me the beasics of it, but photos would make it 100% easier...

[holmsy]

its a pretty easy job mate. i did it one day when i had no clue what i was in for. was easy job just time consuming undoing all the bolts.
one thing to be sure doesnt happen. never let the chain go loose. my big mistake. took me hours to get the thing back together cause it was to hard to get to the tensioner to loosen it.

[Phillis]

id still be 11ty times more confident if there were a few photos!

[travs ea-xr6]

to get to the chain tansioner you have to remove the powerstering pump to the side

[FOR.0EL]

im not 100% sure but i think i have an EL/AU hybrid head or whatever, if thats the case what cam can i look at getting as i was very keen on the wade 1673...

[travs ea-xr6]

just ask wade cams they wiil tell ya

[FOR.0EL]

should i set it to TDC before i do anything? or just at the end when im checking the timing mark on the cam gear, doing this on friday if i get everything i need by then, if not then monday..

[travs ea-xr6]

well nay with the tdc id do it when you have just taken the rocker cover off so you can see the rocker arms and springs are all even and none of the valves are open when its lined up with tdc.
you want it to be at top dead center before you even touch the head gear.
so when all the valves are shut its on the power stroke and that what you want.
its eassy mate

[bng]

Thanks heaps effalcon. Hoping to try this in the coming weeks, just gotta save more money after i get my exhaust done

[FOR.0EL]

How to change your cam

by Nathan/FOR.0EL/Me.

so here goes,

- get all your leads, air intake, all the hoses and crap out of the way.
- remove your rocker cover. it is a pain beause that damn brake booster hose at the back, just remove the hose if you want to. i didnt.
- jam some cloth into the oil gallery's, and get some cable ties and cable tie the timig chain to the cam gear.
- now loosen the cam bolt to make it more possible when you remove the rocker gear
- now get a few beers, perhaps a clock to watch time go by, while you remove the 11ty billion bolts from the rocker gear.
- now remove the cam bolt, and get your assistant (i didnt have an assistant, rope also works) to jam some screwdrivers in there to hold the cam gear and all the junk in place.
- get your old cam out and your new one in presto!
- do up the cam bolt, and the rocker gear bolts. this takes some time, did for me anyway.
- remove the cable ties and cloth, clearly.
- put your rocker cover back on, and the rest of the shit, leads and whatnot.
- start her up and go for a drive.


dont ask why i just wrote all that, this is exactly what i done tonight, didnt stuff around with TDC or any other stuff that may be said somewhere else. not saying anyone else is wrong just saying this is what i done.

photos..

rocker cover off



hard to see, but these are the oil holes.



jammed up oil holes, rocker bolts out, 100 cables ties on the cam gear...



Close up shot with my 2 assistants, and whatever else you wanna see.



And my other assistant at work!





If you have any questions or whatnot, ill be happy to answer them to the best of my knowledge.

[travs ea-xr6]

It looks like you got the engine on TDC because the valve springs look like there open free so it must of been on the power stroke.
If you dont have cyl 1 at TDC you will likely smash the valves in cyl 1.
is the new cam in now,hows it go

[FOR.0EL]

Yeah im not sure lol, i just done it where the car was, there and then.

the new cam is in.. it idles fucking awesome, and i haven't given it much yet out on the road but i will! kinda freaking out a bit as i put it all in myself lol..

only took me 4 hours

[komprezzor]

Few of my hot tips Id like to add. Put the sprocket back onto the camshaft before intalling the rocker gear. That way the cam will be in the right position and you will never be able to bend vavles. Also loosen and tighten the rocker bolts evenly and a bit at a time, its painfully slow unless you have air rachet or speed brace but this is the right way. Also be careful when removing the rocker gear that no lifters drop out down oil drain backs or anywhere thats tough to find them. If they do want to drop out, replace the seals on them while your there so they dont rattle there heads off. And oil the new cam.

[FordFairmont]

It looks like you got the engine on TDC because the valve springs look like there open free so it must of been on the power stroke.
If you dont have cyl 1 at TDC you will likely smash the valves in cyl 1.

ive read this a few times and still doesnt make sense to me?

you can remove and refit a cam with the motor turned over in any stroke without damaging anything..... as long as the chain hasnt jumped teeth

[komprezzor]

Yes you can, but it best to have it on TDC No.1 and its dead simple to get it lined up. So just line it up first.

[Rhodseyy]

didnt know there were torque specifications for the rocker cover...

There is torque specifications for every single nut and bolt on any car. they are set that way through machines on the production line. how ever not all bolts require to be set to the specific torque setting, only the important ones that make seals etc.

[XR_Lightning]

didnt know there were torque specifications for the rocker cover...

There is torque specifications for every single nut and bolt on any car. they are set that way through machines on the production line. how ever not all bolts require to be set to the specific torque setting, only the important ones that make seals etc.

lol, that post is almost 4 years old

[Rhodseyy]

lol i only just read this

[TechXR]

This info should be helpful for me to install my regrind cam, along with my other thread!