hehehe...sneeky mods..

[lostforawhile]

here's how to use it, you would put a strip of plastigauge across each bearing journal on the cam,then you torqe on the caps,remove them again and read the gauge on the scale. this will tell you the clearance between the bearing caps and the cam. you compare this to see if it's within honda's specs. on an overhead cam like this,it's just like checking rod and main bearing clearance on a pushrod type engine. this is cheap insurance before you start it up. this way you know for sure the oil clearance is right. once you are done, you just wipe off the plastigage with solvent from the cam and cap bearings. in the case of this engine,you just bolt on the entire rocker assembly,torque it to spec in the proper pattern,then take it back off. then you can read each bearing journal.
I would never install a cam or bearings in an engine unless i checked everything out first. http://www.plastigaugeusa.com/how.html

[Tdurr]

how much are they? and knowing my luck now that i know about this if i dont do it then something is gonna fuck up... great...

[lostforawhile]

how much are they? and knowing my luck now that i know about this if i dont do it then something is gonna fuck up... great...

plasti gauge is cheap you can get some at any auto parts store

[Tdurr]

how cheap lol. I got 10bucks for gas...

[lostforawhile]

never mind. here's a link from northern by the way good info http://www.northernautoparts.com/Pro...ProductId=1109

[rjudgey]

I would be more worried about him re using his old rockers!! You have to recondition/reprofile your old ones at the very least or buy new rockers all round or you'll just tear the surface of the cam apart and the rockers even more. You can reprofile/recondition the rockers by getting a 100% flat surface like a thick marble cutting board or sheet of thick perspex etc. then using course wet and dry gently rock the surface of the pad too and fro untill you got a nice uniform flat finish with no indentations, then you use the finer stuff to polish it off nicely then do that to the other 11 hard work i spent a whole evening doing this in front of telly but if your good with your hands, got plenty of energy and patience not very hard, but you need to get a good even finish and must not round it off on the sides.

[lostforawhile]

I would be more worried about him re using his old rockers!! You have to recondition/reprofile your old ones at the very least or buy new rockers all round or you'll just tear the surface of the cam apart and the rockers even more. You can reprofile/recondition the rockers by getting a 100% flat surface like a thick marble cutting board or sheet of thick perspex etc. then using course wet and dry gently rock the surface of the pad too and fro untill you got a nice uniform flat finish with no indentations, then you use the finer stuff to polish it off nicely then do that to the other 11 hard work i spent a whole evening doing this in front of telly but if your good with your hands, got plenty of energy and patience not very hard, but you need to get a good even finish and must not round it off on the sides.

i just use the surface grinder at work lol just level the surface then take off .0001 at a time until it's perfectly flat. can't get any more flat then that.

[Tdurr]

I would be more worried about him re using his old rockers!! You have to recondition/reprofile your old ones at the very least or buy new rockers all round or you'll just tear the surface of the cam apart and the rockers even more. You can reprofile/recondition the rockers by getting a 100% flat surface like a thick marble cutting board or sheet of thick perspex etc. then using course wet and dry gently rock the surface of the pad too and fro untill you got a nice uniform flat finish with no indentations, then you use the finer stuff to polish it off nicely then do that to the other 11 hard work i spent a whole evening doing this in front of telly but if your good with your hands, got plenty of energy and patience not very hard, but you need to get a good even finish and must not round it off on the sides.

I asked the guys a day to two before i ordered about this and he said I should be fine unless there is excessive wearing on them, so im taking his word.
and ill have a bunch of ppl checking stuff as i do the work so ill prob wont put it in if i feel it wont work out right.

[lostforawhile]

I asked the guys a day to two before i ordered about this and he said I should be fine unless there is excessive wearing on them, so im taking his word.
and ill have a bunch of ppl checking stuff as i do the work so ill prob wont put it in if i feel it wont work out right.

well the plastigauge is cheap insurance, i wouldn't build an engine without it, usually when you take shortcuts it will turn around and bite you in the ass later.

[rjudgey]

Hmm surface grinder is a bit extreme but more importantly i would have thought getting a even flat finish on that would be near enough impossible or very hard to do are the grinding stones guaranteed 100% flat when you buy them and how long before it goes out of spec, using Wet and dry on a 100% flat surface using 600 grade and then 1500 grade allways guarantees a really nice flat finish for the rockers done this like 6 times now on various builds and cams that i've tried.

Oh and as for wear on your rockers from my experience they get worn when they've done more than 30k miles and because the cam has more duration and lift the rockers will be contacting different areas of the pad which will more than likely end up running against worn areas which will scuff and scratch your ncie new lobes on the camshaft. I know this as i've tried it before when i was in a rush. As this is something you can do yourself if your hands are steady and you have a slightly artisitc aptitude it costs no more than a few sheets of wet and dry and a couple of evenings in front of telly with couple of beers (this is if your hands shake a bit!!)

[lostforawhile]

Hmm surface grinder is a bit extreme but more importantly i would have thought getting a even flat finish on that would be near enough impossible or very hard to do are the grinding stones guaranteed 100% flat when you buy them and how long before it goes out of spec, using Wet and dry on a 100% flat surface using 600 grade and then 1500 grade allways guarantees a really nice flat finish for the rockers done this like 6 times now on various builds and cams that i've tried.

Oh and as for wear on your rockers from my experience they get worn when they've done more than 30k miles and because the cam has more duration and lift the rockers will be contacting different areas of the pad which will more than likely end up running against worn areas which will scuff and scratch your ncie new lobes on the camshaft. I know this as i've tried it before when i was in a rush. As this is something you can do yourself if your hands are steady and you have a slightly artisitc aptitude it costs no more than a few sheets of wet and dry and a couple of evenings in front of telly with couple of beers (this is if your hands shake a bit!!)

surface grinder is the most accurate flat surface you can get. if you do it by hand use some clover(valve lapping) compound

[Tdurr]

well i got a fully rebuilt/reman motor(shipped in) from a shop so im going to assume everything is in spec, I only have 7500ish miles on the whole engine. I checked the receipt book.

[lostforawhile]

well i got a fully rebuilt/reman motor(shipped in) from a shop so im going to assume everything is in spec, I only have 7500ish miles on the whole engine. I checked the receipt book.

right,but your rockers are now worn in to the cam profile, this is part of the normal break in procedure for an engine. the engine may be in spec but you should still check the new cam while it's torqued in for proper oil clearance. anytime you install a new part into an engine that has oil clearance, you always need to double check.

[Tdurr]

i guess... ill see bout the plasti gauges then..

[Tdurr]

I got some red plasti gauge, that the correct size right? lol im a newb...

[lostforawhile]

i guess... ill see bout the plasti gauges then..

you'll feel better knowing it's right. you can never be too picky when it comes to internal engine parts, the more careful you are the better off you will be in the long run.

[lostforawhile]

I got some red plasti gauge, that the correct size right? lol im a newb...

what does it say as far as the size it measures?

[lostforawhile]

here's the link from northern again it shows exactly how to use it,you follow the instructions then compare that reading to the honda spec for the cam oil clearance. http://www.northernautoparts.com/Pro...ProductId=1109

[Tdurr]

it says .002 to .006in. our spec is in between that right?

[Strugglebucket]

The spec for the outer and middle journals is .002"-.004"

The two in-between journals are .005"-.007"

[rjudgey]

Surface grinder as in what you use to skim heads and blocks?? How would you get the rounded finish of the rocker pad using a surface grinder?? Just out of curiousity might save me bit of time next time i have to do this again.

[Tdurr]

Well I got the cam in today, and plasti gauged it all perfect specs(see i told you lol) but didnt have enough time to get the valves adjusted so its sitting in the shop at school.

So tomorrow I'll be finishing it up, rechecking everything, adjusting the timing(and i have a question bout that, wut should i set it to?), and break the cam in then do a oil change and she should be good to go!

[lostforawhile]

Well I got the cam in today, and plasti gauged it all perfect specs(see i told you lol) but didnt have enough time to get the valves adjusted so its sitting in the shop at school.

So tomorrow I'll be finishing it up, rechecking everything, adjusting the timing(and i have a question bout that, wut should i set it to?), and break the cam in then do a oil change and she should be good to go!

well now you know and you didn't start the engine up to a grinding scraping sound lol. never hurts to be patient and check everything out. are you going to put the moly engine break in lube on the cam? also if you have synthetic oil you might want to change it to non synthetic during the break in. stuff is so slippery the parts never wear in.

[Tdurr]

^^ good point on the oil...and yea i have dirty syn oil with some crappy additive(had a small leak needed to top the oil level off, but fixed now)

I was gonna put some on the cam but my friend didnt bring any from his house(i reminded him like5 times lol) sooo no cam lube, just dirty oil.

[cygnus x-1]

Surface grinder as in what you use to skim heads and blocks?? How would you get the rounded finish of the rocker pad using a surface grinder?? Just out of curiousity might save me bit of time next time i have to do this again.

I believe head/block skimming is done with some sort of fly cutter on a mill, and mostly you just need the surface to be flat (within 0.002" for the A20). Grinding would only be for creating a smoother surface finish than you would get from milling. On a cylinder head grinding would be way overkill since the gasket would conform to any surface texture.

The cam/rocker surfaces are another matter though. A smooth finish on these is critical. But I'm not sure how a surface grinder would create a rounded profile. I always understood surface grinders to be for flat surfaces only.

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