Who has had success with a roller cam big block?

[Kern Dog]

I bought a $9 piece of all thread and made a tool to install the harmonic balancer...



I welded a scrap 3/4" socket to help hold the tool in place when cranking down the nut...



I used a bearing to reduce resistance.



Boom....



This will work for big blocks, LA and Magnum engines too.

[Kern Dog]

I am delaying the cam swap a short time while I concentrate on a 360 build of mine. I'm also helping a friend build a 360/408 for his 68 Dart.
Lots of stuff going on here!

[Kern Dog]

The 5.9/408 for Rich's Dart is in....



Body drop over the engine and transmission....





Then of course, I got to work on another project, the only 4 door that I've ever spent time putting together...



Front end rebuild and a BIG sway bar!

[70 sublime]

Why the plastic on the headers ?

[Kern Dog]

The headers were recoated and he wanted to keep them in place until the engine was in place.....He was avoiding scratches.

[Kern Dog]

Another 2 months have passed with no progress.
I bought almost all the stuff to do this cam swap but have yet to dive in to do it. All the valve springs have to be changed and I'll have to shim each one to get the installed height to 1.860, plus or minus .010".
I considered a swap to Trick Flow heads with the correct springs already installed. This would allow me to simply pull these Edelbrock heads and set them aside for my ratty Jigsaw Charger.
New heads and gaskets would have cost around $3000. I tried to justify this by telling myself it would save time and trouble while giving a power increase. Estimates of an approximately 30 HP gain were made and in my opinion, that is a lot of money for such a minor gain.
I decided to skip the new heads. I'll just change these springs with the heads in place.
Comp Cams has a tool that attaches to a rocker shaft. I made my own...





I tried to use this before but the angle of the lever wasn't right. I ended up using this:



It worked but took longer and was cumbersome. Maybe I could modify the lever?



If you have a Sawzall and welder, you can do almost anything.



Repainted....





This ought to clear the power brake booster, master cylinder and be more comfortable in general. I can even slip a cheater bar over the lever if I need more leverage.