Thread: help me determine what ive got!

Tweet

Originally Posted by thejallenator

ok so i got the motor all tore down this afternoon. that was pretty fun. never tore down a piston engine before. now i started to try and research the cam to figure out a little more about the motor but came up with nothing. the only numbers i could find on it were "E27" "GM96" and "6930x". so can anybody give me some insight on this?

Probably just your garden variety stocker cam. A high-perf aftermarket unit would be stamped on the rear face of the rear journal.

You can have some fun with this though, and learn how to degree a camshaft. You will need the block hanging on an engine stand, 4 main bearing halves (put the crank in the block on #1 and #4 main bearings), the crankshaft, the timing set (chain and sprockets), the cam, #1 piston and rod, a degree wheel, a degree wheel marker (piece of clothes hanger wire), a 0-1 inch dial indicator and magnetic stand and a steel bar that will replicate a lifter. Go down to your local machine shop and have them make you a steel bar, round, 8 inches long. Half the length (4 inches) will be 0.842" (+0.000", -0.002") diameter for checking SBC, BBC, LS cams. The other 4 inches of its length will be 0.875" (+0.000, -0.002") diameter for checking SB and BB Fords. Square off and smooth the ends.

The reason you want to make up this bar is that you can't use a hydraulic lifter to check cam timing with because the plunger will move in the lifter body, giving you an erroneous reading on your dial indicator. Some guys throw away the lock ring, turn the plunger over and use JB Weld to tighten it into the lifter body and use that, but it still leaves the lifter way down in the block. Making this steel bar will put the end of the bar above the block deck so that you can easily sit your dial indicator plunger on the end of it. It is also heavy enough that it will naturally follow the cam profile as you check the cam timing.

Here's the tutorial from Iskenderian about how to do the degreeing. If you're interested in doing this, just say so and I will answer any further questions you might have. I like to see fellows improve their knowledge, but I don't want to try to force something down your throat.
http://www.iskycams.com/camshaft.php

I will say this though, once you are proficient at degreeing in a camshaft, you will be able to lend assistance to others as they install camshafts and want to degree them. And if you do someone a favor, you have a favor coming.