Guest Posted April 19, 2002 Share Posted April 19, 2002 I bought a degree wheel for my only other cam change many years ago and never used or even opened it. I am doing another cam change and thought about opening the degree wheel but don't know the first thing about how to use it or exactly what it is for. Is it simple and worth while? I thought it was as simple as lining the dots and putting the chains on... Other than getting involved with offset keys in the crank, how can you adjust a cam with a degree wheel? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chuckash Posted April 20, 2002 Share Posted April 20, 2002 When you degree in a cam, you are basically checking that the cam timing specs. occur as advertised by the cam manufacturer with respect to the movement of the #1 piston. This is done using a piston stop, and is best done if the heads are off the vehicle. It can, however, be done with the heads on the vehicle using a littel ingenuity. This is a worthwhile effort to make sure that everything is in order. Things like a poorly ground cam, or the wrong cam in a box are the types of things you are looking to find. Advancing or retarding the cam can be done with special timing sets or offset bushings. By altering the cam timing, the torque curve is moved up or down somewhat. Hopefully RiceRacing2 will reply also, likely with more information than I could ever remember. If you are interested, I have a few articles and instructions that I could fax to you about this subject. Just let me know. Charlie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted April 20, 2002 Share Posted April 20, 2002 Tavia makes a piston stop that goes in the plug hole for heads on use. Bring #1 up to o on the balancer befroe you tear down. when the new cam is in mount the degree wheel and pointer set it at 0 deg install the piston stop, by hand turn the eng one direction until it stops against the piston stop record the deg reading. go back the other way until it stops record the reading. if the two are the same deg rom zero its ok if not then you have to adjust the wheel to get the proper tdc point. now you can mount your 1" travel dial indicater and install one lifter ,#1 intake. Turn eng until lifter is on base circle of cam, zero the dial ind. Now turn engine in normal direction of rotation, record the deg reading when the dial ind reaches .050" lift, then the degree reading at max lift(lobe centerline), and again at .050" lift on the closing side. check these #'s against the cam card, if they match then its right on if not you will have to make adjustments. I would buy a cloyes hex adjust chain and gear set, that way you can adjust the cam same as with a gear drive by changing the bushing on the guide pin. The bushings can be bought from 0 to 6 deg of offset. It sounds harder than it is. I also check the exhaust. Actually I check each lobe on the race stuff, thats not required for 99 percent of apps. Don Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted April 20, 2002 Share Posted April 20, 2002 I'll second Chuckash's remarks about getting the wrong cam. I ordered a cam from Comp Cams for my 88 Throttle body p/u truck. It's a good thing I looked at the cam card, They had sent a bracket race cam instead of my mild fuel injection type cam. The box was marked correctly but the wrong cam in the right box. Jon. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted April 21, 2002 Share Posted April 21, 2002 Ahh! Thanks guys, now I understand completely. Makes good sense and I never thought about the possibility of the wrong cam in the box... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Josh Reuter Posted April 23, 2002 Share Posted April 23, 2002 I ordered a cam from Summit years ago for my 85 GT & the engine didn't run right with it in, so I bought another one, put it in & the engine really woke up. When I called Summit to return it, they refused to give me my money back, saying they had shipped the correct cam. When I asked if it was ground wrong, the tech guy said "That never happens." So I gave it to a buddy who was rebuilding the 5.0 in his truck & sure enough, it ran like crap. He pulled it out & replaced it with another cam & we forget all about it. Well, last summer he & another friend were fooling around with a 302 from an old Cougar & they threw this Summit cam in & checked it with a degree wheel. Sure enough, it didn't match the specs listed on the box. Lesson learned, never assume ... ------------------ 01 Mustang Bullitt 94 Caprice 9C1 85 Mustang GT 80 F250 70 Monte Carlo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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