348 engine out major

The little arrow is pointing the direction of the engine rotation. This is to help you instal the seal facing the proper way. My 348 engine rotates clockwise, and the arrow is pointing clockwise.
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With the seal fitted inside the housing, and facing the proper direction, I placed it between 2 pieces of wood. I do this so that when I give it a good smack with a small sledge hammer, the force is pretty much even all the way around, and so that I don't bend up the aluminum housing. That and I haven't gotten around to buying a press.

So it's tinfoil-hat-tech for the installation.

A good whack with the sledge, and the seal is installed, Stooge style. Three more to go.
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I fit the new o-rings in place, and the cams seals are good to go.

One thing to remember is, before I installed the seals, and the o-rings, I made absolutely sure the housings were clean, dry, and free from any sealer I applied the last time. It is important they they are dry, and absolutely NO oil on them, else I run the risk of them leaking when I'm finished.
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With the cam seals all finished let's get the shims mic'd up.

I was having a hard time getting a good grip on the shim bucket. So I used a pair of needle nose pliers to gently grad a hold of the bucket and slide it out.

Here is the bottom of the bucket, and the valve spring retainer.
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I remove the bucket because I find it's easier to get the shim out of it that way. I know Ferrari has a special tool for removing the shims, but this is the way I do it because I don't have the tool. That and it's so much easier when I can just pull them out with the cams removed.

I stick a small screwdriver into the little slot on the side of the bucket. Give the screw driver a twist so the shim pops loose. turn it upside down, and drop the shim into my hand.
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You will notice on the back of some of the shims there are printed with the shim specs. The printed thickness of this particular shim is 4.25mm.

I have found that this is just a generalization. Sometimes the printing is correct, other times it isn't. So let's put a micrometer on it and find out.
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Mic-ing this shim I found that it actually measured 4.26mm. Now that I have the true measurement of the shim, I write it down in the corresponding box, for the valve it cam from, on the chart I made earlier.
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Let's check another one.

Looks like the printing on this shim was right on the money at 4.15mm.
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How about one more.

Why not.

This one was of a 100th, actually measuring 3.71mm vs the printed 3.70.

Now yeah that is pretty close, but that small difference can either put you in spec, or out of spec. Plus, most of my shims have no printing on them at all, so I had to mic them to know what they measured. After recording all 32 shim measurements on my chart I was able to figure out how much thicker, or thinner, I needed the shims to be for adjusting the 4 valves that were out of spec. Good thing I saved the old shims from last time I did this.
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With the gaps an shims all measured, I'll go ahead and replace the rear intake cam seal, for the cam faze sensor housing.
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I layer the housing facing up on the same piece I used for the front cam seals. Then inserted a 42mm socket into the front of the housing. The 42mm socket is wide enough to cover the race of the bearing, but small enough to fit through the housing hole the seal gets pressed into.
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A good smack with a BFH, and the seal pops right out the bottom.
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For the installing the seal I turned the housing facing down resting on a 50mm socket. This is because I don't want to bend the 3 long bolts, for the phase sensor, and housing cover to get tweaked. That and it provides even support all the way around the housing.

Then I placed the new seal in face down into the back of the housing. Remembering that the seal goes in dry, and the housing must be clean and oil free. This way it is facing right side out when it goes back on the engine, and I don't run the risk of it leaking.

You can see in the first picture that the seal has a bit of a lip on the back of it. What I found was that a 48mm socket fit nicely inside that lip.

With everything in place, I give the back of the socket a good hit, then check to make sure this went in properly. Turn over the housing for a look, and I'm golden.
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Speaking of faze sensor. I need to remove the phonic wheel on the back of the 1/4 intake cam.

Remove the 3 screw holding it to the cam, and take the wheel off.
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Now that I have that off I can take the pulleys off the cams.

On one of the cams I could not get the pulley bolt to come loose. So it was time for some more tinfoil-hat-tech. I couldn't hold the cam strong enough to keep it still when I hit it with the impact wrench. I gave it some thought and came up with this.

I figured that the cams take quite a beating smacking into the followers at 7500rpm. Well if they can handle that kind of punishment surely they handle being held still with a crescent wrench for a few seconds.

So I got one of my really big crescent wrenches, and fit the cam inside it. I positioned the lobe so that the long side of the ramp was against the jaw of the wrench. Then I tightened it down as much as I could. Held it steady, put the rattle gun on the cam bolt, and zipped it off.
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A look inside the bolt hole and NO WONDER I couldn't get it off. Who ever it was that last worked, before me, decided to baptize the bolt with a grip of Locktite. Arrrrrr!

The other three cams I didn't have the same issue getting the bolt removed. It was only this one.
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Last time I did the belt change I didn't replace the o-rings between the pulleys and the cam. So that is why I didn't catch all the Loctite the first time I pulled the engine.

The other thing is, my cams were starting to show a bit of wear. So to help increase the life of the cams, and help reduce wear, I decided to ship them off to a company named WPC. WPC has a proprietary process for treating the cams. It is a sort of microscopic shot peening. If you wanna know more about them you can look up their website. I was quiet economical to get done. I got all the cams, the cam caps, and the followers treated. The cost was around $600ish for everything. WPC had a fast turn around. I got everything back in a few days.
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The other thing that showed up to the house was the new water pump. Complete with ANOTHER plastic impeller. Aye caramba!

I'm gonna take a quick time out, then come back to put it together.
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Ok I'm back.

Lets get the pump put back together.

I like to use Hondabond HT to seal things up. I know that some don't use sealer on the gaskets, but I do.
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I smear a thin layer of Hondabond around the mating face of the pump.
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The fit the gasket to the back of the pump.
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I'll smear some more Hondabond to the front of the gasket, then fit the new pump to the back half.

With the two halves joined, I put the 4 nuts back on, and then tighten them down. The 3 on the top of the pump hold it together fine, but there is only on on the bottom. So using a pair of vice grips I clamp the bottom of the other side together. Then leave it sit to allow the Hondabond to cure over night.
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Now it's time to get the engine ready to lift of the subframe so I can pull the sump pan, and timing chain cover.

Think I'll get the headers out of the way.

So I remove all the 13mm nuts holding them to the exhaust ports on the head.
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They take the headers off the engine and set them aside.
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Heads are off, a look underneath and Yucko! Still a bunch of crud under the heads I didn't get off when I gave it a wash. Oh well I'll clean it later.
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