camshaft bearing cap matching

**DeftAnesthetik** · 03-06-2007, 11:11 AM

well ive come to a question that i do not have an answer for.

what i have is a bigport 4age head that has been packed around for a while and has been disassembled, as such pieces have gotten scattered. I have managed to find the camshaft caps for the exhaust but am unable to find the ones for the intake. what i need to know is are the caps line bored for each head? meaning that i must use the original caps or are they machined in a way that i can use the intake caps from another bigport head?

thanks in advance

**BeRad** · 03-06-2007, 11:19 AM

The caps are usualy numbered, and should be put back the way they came off.

If there just stock cams, caps from another engine will work fine.

**DeftAnesthetik** · 03-06-2007, 11:31 AM

Originally Posted by BeRad

If there just stock cams, caps from another engine will work fine.

are you 100% on that?

**BeRad** · 03-06-2007, 11:41 AM

Bearing circumference wont differ, nor should the cap as nothing is turning on it to cause wear, as how any bearing works.

New bearings will remove any doubt

You shouldnt have lost them in the first place

.... lots of glad seal bags and containers goes a long way with a disasembled engine...

**TurboRA28** · 03-06-2007, 12:15 PM

You cannot swap them around from different engines. You will need to get the bearings in the head tunnel bored.
I had the exact same drama with my 3sgte. I found another set of caps but they are machined for the head and didn't line up perfect.

Be careful with tunnel boring also as you want to make sure the tolerances end up right and also the cams will sit slightly lower so adjustable gears can be a good thing if you want to make sure the timing is spot on.

Cheers
Joel

**lexsmaz** · 03-06-2007, 12:51 PM

I would agree with TurboRA28, One thing you could try first is another set of exhaust cam cap's, remove the cam bucket's & possibly valve spring's install the exhaust cam & start to slowly tighten up the cap's whilst checking the cam is not binding / or at worst locking up, if it does then as mentioned will need to be tunnel bored .. if it spin's freely check the clearances with plastic gauge, Note all clearance's should be done with proper torque spec's of the bolt's .. If still in doubt check with your local engine builder ...
Good luck ... Rob.