348 engine out major

Then I drilled a hole at one end of the wood so I could screw the dial indicator to it. I know this isn't the absolute most accurate way of doing this, but like I said, I used what I had laying around.

Oh you'll also notice that the cams are already installed. I forgot to take a pic of how I positioned the dial indicator when I found TDC with the cams of. So I mocked it up and snapped a pic.
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Then with the crank pulley removed, I bolted a degree wheel to the crank. Here is what it looked like.
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LOL!!!

Tinfoil-hat-tech I tell ya.

 

With everything in place I rotated the engine, clockwise, until I found TDC. Then I adjusted the wire pointer so that it was pointing right at 0º on the wheel.

Sorry fellas I didn't take any how-to pics of this. You can find plenty of info on how to do this on the web. It really isn't all that hard.
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By line of sight dead reckoning.

HAHAHAHAHA!!!

 

Now to install the cams.

I put a dab of assembly lube on the shim buckets. Then installed the shims into the bucket. To make sure I put the correct shims in the correct buckets I refer to my notes on the valve adjustment chart. I measured each shim and place it accordingly to the valve.

Just in case you forgot. The reason the shims were removed was because I shipped them of to WPC for their treatment process.
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Then I went around all the shims again and applied a dab of assembly lube to the top of each shim/follower, and to each of the cam journals in the head.
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Before I installed the cams I slid the front cam seals over the cam. I did this from the back of the cam up to the front.
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Sure.

I'll explain what top dead center is first.

As the crank pushes the piston up the cylinder, the piston will eventually stop moving up because the crank has reached the limit of it's travel. The piston will remain at the top of the stroke for a few degrees of crank rotation (on my engine I found that to be 2º of crank rotation). The reason the piston dwells at the top is because of the length of the connecting rod. As the crank rotates (clockwise) the rod has to move from one side of the cylinder to the other. The middle of the piston dwelling at the top is when the crank, and connecting rod are aligned 180º straight up and down in the middle of the cylinder.

The dial indicator is used to see the movement of the piston. As the piston moves up, or down, the dial indicator will show that movement. That is why I put the socket extension into the spark plug hole, on the top of the piston. So as the piston push up on the extension, the extension move the dial indicator. So... when I rotate the engine I watch for the dial indicator to stop moving. The very moment it stops moving I note that position. That is what the wheel on the crank is for. So I can see where in the rotation the crank is. I then continue to rotate the crank and watch for the dial indicator to start going backwards, then note that position on the degree wheel on the crank. Then I split the difference, and adjust the pointer to the middle of both degrees. After I have positioned the pointer to the middle I adjust the degree wheel so that 0º is on the pointer. Then I go back and double check to make sure I have it correct. By doing this I can find 0º of the 360º of crank rotation, and I will be able to position the cams where they need to be.

I hope that made a little sense?

 

Okay back to installing these cams.

I set the cam in the journals. If you look at the cam seal housing, in my right hand, you will see I have the mark in the housing pointing up.
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Back when I removed the cam caps I talked about the numbers on the head being stamped right side up, or upside down, and the same on the caps.

For this cam they were stamped up side down. So I match the cap to the number on the head, and put the cap on upside down, as it was stamped on the head. Again, the reason for this is because, that is the way the caps were positioned when they got bored at the factory. If they don't get installed facing the correct direction I would risk the cams seizing.

So the caps get installed on the head with the numbers facing the same direction as on the head. And in this case upside down for my 1/4 intake cam.
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Here are all the caps set in place on the intake cam.
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Before I tighten them down I adjusted the cam timing mark to match the mark on the cap. I also had the mark on the cam seal housing pointing up too. The mark on the seal housing is opposite the oil drain notch on the other side of the housing. It's so that the excess oil can drain back into the head instead of pool up behind the cam seal.

With the marks positioned correctly the cap nuts get tightened down. I like to start with the middle cam cap and work out.
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Yes.

Cams, followers, and caps.

 

Next I reinstalled the phonic wheel to the back of the 1/4 intake cam.
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Here are a couple more pics of the numbers on the head and caps. This time facing up.
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Now it's time to put the pulleys on the cams.

The cams have holes machined in to them, as do the pulleys. These are so you can make adjustments to the cam timing.
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I fit the pulley to the cam, and then inserted the retaining dowel through the hole to hold the cam in place.
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The o-ring gets installed over the retaining bolt before it gets screwed in the cam. Also notice the notch on one side of the washer. That is to make room for the tip of the dowel sticking out of the pulley. I was sure to position the washer so that the dowel was in the notch. Then I tightened down the bolt, securing the pulley to the cam, and keeping the dowel from coming out of the hole.
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On to fitting the timing belt.

Here is where I ran into a problem. I could not get the new belt to fit, even though I had the tensioner bearing compressed and locked in place. It just would not get over the last pulley. There wasn't enough slack in the belt, and I did not want to force it on for fear of damaging it.
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