Camshaft change with engine in position

[The Hatter]

Has anyone tried this? I'm half way through but can't get the front of the engine high enough to get the cam out. Do I need to remove the exhaust manifolds?

[KKson]

Did it on the 390SE no problem. Had to unbolt the engine mounts and gentle jacked the front of engine up an inch or so, with manifolds in place, and managed to get it out okay.

[RubbishFettler]

I'll second that,did the same and there is just room for the camshaft to be drawn out over the bulkhead really not difficult to do.

[adam quantrill]

I'll third it - did it on the 350i. Remove the bonnet!

Maybe unto the engine mounts (I put long stainless bolts in there for convenience) and jack up under the front pulley. I doubt I undid the exhaust but you'll only need to undo the unions near the bellhousing.

[The Hatter]

Sounds encouraging... thanks all. I'll try again.

[TVRTRICEY]

Yep its doable, I had to slacken off the engine mounts to make it happen. Then sods law we found the bottom end was ruined and removed the whole engine, so didn't need to faff. Sods Law!

[The Hatter]

I took this pic last night, the cam seems to line up with the horizontal body panel behind the radiator. I assume I have to get the engine high enough to get the cam above this panel? I hope my car doesn't have this panel higher than other cars for some reason, but it looks like the engine has to be raised pretty high for the cam to clear this panel.



Hopefully I won't need to take the engine out...

[KKson]

From photo it looks similar to mine. It was tight but it did fit. The panels on both the 350i and 390 are identical on mine. Other option is to remove radiator and drop engine down a little to get the camshaft underneath the cross support?

[RubbishFettler]

Looks like my 350, I'm sure it'll be fine.

[Jack Valiant]

Martin

When I did the 420 engine I disconnected the exhaust at the Y piece (both clips) undid the engine mounts completely and slackened off the gear box mounts as if they are frail they will crack / tear, and jacked the engine up on wooden blocks. From what I can see you are still 2-3" shy of clearance. I then had the space needed. It does need to come up quite a bit.

Chris

[The Hatter]

Managed to get it out, I had to grit my teeth and carry on lifting the engine after the exhaust manifolds had hit the chassis. My chassis needs repainting anyway...

[url|http://thumbsnap.com/u7L5EJdr[/url]

It was still very tight; and once I'd slid the cam between the body cross brace and the nosecone it then hit the radiator fan. I had to swing the cam sideways with the last cam bearing still in the engine, there was just enough of a difference in bearing sizes to be able to do that.

I also had one of the lifters burred over, so it wouldn't come out of the top. I had to wire it in place while I withdrew the cam and then perform the cardboard tube trick to extract it into the space vacated by the camshaft. Not fun - the consequences of dropping the lifter into the sump are not nice!