Setting up cams

There is a great deal of truth in what you just said. Both of mine are sure "off". Most times on most engines I would just line up all the silly marks and call it a day. It ran before, it will run again. And you have more than obviously shown that at least in the case of the later cars that Ferrari really started getting thier index marks more spot on. Its these older cars that are spotty I guess. Seriously, my rear intake cam mark is off quite a ways.

But I also remember the old American Iron, and when you go back reading stuff about them today and realise how screwed up most were, you realise how much we probably missed by just one time degreeing the darn things and making some better marks. I recall a few guys that went that extra mile back when I was a kid, and no one could touch them on the street.

One thing I would add caution to is matchbooks under the cam caps to lock the cams. I stated this before but just in case no one was listening, be very very careful doing this. Its a good way to hold the cam, and if you only gently screw down the nuts finger tight you wont have any problems. But if you overtighten the nuts, and it really wont take very much torque, much less torque than indicated, you could snap the cam cap in half like a potato chip. This isnt BS either it has happened. A long time ago someone cautioned doing this for a whole other reason. Someone had forgot to remove a matchbook and put the motor back together and ran it. It did some really awful damage.

If you have the cams indexed, and the belt is on with the tensioner adjusted up, you can remove the cam bolt, slip out the pin, and carefully turn the camshaft slightly to align a different pin hole. The problem comes when no appropriate pin holes are available. You then need to pull the belt sprocket off the cam, slip the belt over the sprocket one way or other, and pop the sprocket back onto the cam. Thats why the front exhaust cam is so hard to do on a 308, you cant very well get your head up in there to see and still have any arms that work. At least with a 348 the darn thing is sitting out on the floor

 

Any tricks to dialing in the front exhaust cam on a 308 while the engine is in the car?

 

No trick I know of. By the time I cram my nose up in there so I can see pin holes, I cant remember which way is advance or retard. I move a pin hole and find I went the wrong way, then move a pin hole and find im back where I started again. It can be rather frustrating. Do that cam first and only when your not tired. That one cam seems about the hardest obstacle of all of it, and I think that stupid AC compressor is about the most difficult second to that front cam.

 

Nice write and thanks for taking the time to do it, can you tell me what the torque setting is for these nuts ??
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Great write-up!

Quick question: Is it possible to use a crank degree wheel with the engine IN the car, specifically in a Mondial 8 major service?

 

78 in/lbs, or 6.5 ft/lbs. Not very much.

 

By crank snout you mean the end of the crank opposite the flywheel/clutch? So just put it on over the crank pully?

 

You can most likely fit a smaller degree wheel onto the crank in the Mondial. The degree wheels come in different diameters. Obviously, the larger the wheel the more accurate the degree readings. Once you've opened things up down there, you can get a sense of how much room you have, and that will dictate how large a wheel you can adapt to the crank pulley.

Just be sure, when you set up your pointer, that you use something relatively stiff, and attach it to the engine block if you can. You don't want to take any chances that your pointer might move or be bent by accident, as it will really throw things off.

 

Dialing in cams with a degree wheel in a Mondial with the engine in:

http://ferrarichat.com/forum/showpost.php?p=136687502&postcount=8

 

Awesome! Thanks!