So I've got the heads, intake and distributor off the 390 this weekend and I found some coolant just starting to leak around the water pump shaft, so now I'm replacing the water pump. It also looks like I have some oil weeping around the timing cover, oil filter adapter, fuel pump, oil pan... It seems like this thing is leaking everywhere. I should have just pulled the engine.

Anyway, I'm playing the "while I have this apart, I should..." game, so I'm giving some thought to replacing the stock original timing set with a "straight up" 0° double roller timing set. I figure it can't hurt to replace it and then I'll know exactly how much timing I've got going forward (Yes Bear 45/70, I've read your posts ) I've never done a timing set, but it looks pretty straight forward. I found this on another forum:
So, is it really that easy? What am I missing? The screwdriver thing sounds a little cowboy, but I've removed and installed harmonic balancers before, so that does not scare me. I'd probably lock-tite the cam gear bolts so I could sleep at night. I'm looking at COMP Cams Magnum double roller or the Edelbrock Performer-Link true roller, any other recommendations? I figure I only want to do this once, so I want to pick a good one and do it right the first time.

Thanks!

 

You will probably need a puller for the balancer and lower gear.

 

Yep, I've got a puller so that's not an issue. What lower gear do you mean?

 

crank gear. anything you can do so simple and cheap to beef up your motor is always worth it.

 

Ahh, yes. New timing set would come with both gears and chain. I'm talking about replacing all of it, not just the chain itself. I've also just read that the stock crank gear for the timing chain might be made of plastic!? I'm not sure how much I trust a piece of plastic that has been sitting inside my engine for 38 years.

 

Crank gears are metal--steel or iron. The cam gear is the plastic.

They do wear, and they do shed chunks from time to time, so see what it looks like when you pull it and keep going into the pan based on what you see.

 

Ungh, definitely should have pulled the entire engine... might still do it but I need to borrow a hoist. Can I pull the pan without removing the block?

 

Even after raising the engine, I couldn't completly remove the FE oil pan on my 66 F100... but I was able to drop it enough to get in there and pull out parts (which is another story). It was also good to get in there and clean the goop that had settled to the bottom.

 

You may feel or find later that you didn't need to pull the engine if you do it now.

How does that compare to realizing you will have to pull it later, after sinking money into gaskets and energy into working on it upside down and bent over, all of which will be lost?

Pull that baby, you'll be better off.

 

Yeah, pulling the heads and intake was bad enough. I just thought everyone was joking about the iron 2v intake being heavy...

Thanks for the advice. I'll see how things look when I get the timing cover off, and go from there.

 

Well hell maybe you better pull that cam out and look it over for any pits in from lifter floating or a wiped lobe since you've gone this far.
Put in a nice mild comp cam that's not wild with your new timing set All in one cam kit, makes low end power up to about 5000 rpm if you want to push it that high. Once you start tinkering and pulling parts off you'll see something else that needs replacing. Yes do it once if you can, We've all learned mostly the had way. This is a good time to really learn what your doing if you have a manual on fe's and read it many times over until you know how to put it all back together in your sleep "right" There is lots of help here for the most part is good. Some guys here have never pulled a motor apart and don't have the hands on experience. Only hear say and what they picked up on this site could screw you up . Get a old motor manual book that has all the clearances specks from top to bottom. Stuff you need to know when putting it all back together piece by piece. You'll be so proud of yourself. You'll have that knowledge all your life to thing back on. It's just like a puzzle if others can do it you can do it too..
Have fun enjoy what your doing and always double check each move you do. And don't give up on it. That how I learned good luck...my 2cents
orich

 

Thanks Orich, I appreciate the vote of confidence!

I was under the impression that I should change the cam bearings when doing a cam swap... kinda scares me to be using the original bearings with a new cam. New lifters and custom length pushrods are another added expense. This whole mess started because I got tired of leaving oil spots in the driveway, so I decided to fix the oil leaks and do a header upgrade to fix my leaky manifolds and broken bolts at the same time. Its amazing how deep the rabbit hole can get! I made a conscious decision NOT to touch the cam when I started this project. The bottom end is completely stock 66k miles, "emissions era" 8:1-ish CR pistons and everything. I figured I would leave the cam alone until I do a complete rebuild and bump the CR to about 9:1 to really take advantage of the cam. The "straight up" timing set was more of a "while I'm in here, should I bother to do this" kind of thing.

 

I'd pull that cam and inspect it and the lifters for any pitting or wear on the lifter face and cam lobes. Maybe this motor has seen some high rpm's enough to float the valves some. Cam bearing don't see a lot of wear unless it's had some super heavy duty valves spring like for a high lift racing cam. 66,000 miles is not all that much and shouldn't see any cam bearing wear. The front cam bearing will show the most wear if any that, I've found in all the fe motors, I've pulled down. So if it's the front one is bad then yeah you'll need to install new cam bearing. You'll have to be very careful removing the cam. So you don't score or damage the bearings while removing the cam. Best to have the timing gear on and a rag over the chain teeth as your twisting it back & fourth as you pull on it but just a about a 1/2" at a time you'll have to hole the inner shaft up while the lobe past over the bearings. All while making it a fun job.. orich

 

You can get a pretty good idea of your cam's condition by looking at it through the lifter holes. Just remove 1 lifter at a time, check the lobe and lifter visually. If there are any pits or chips out of the cam or lifter the whole assembly needs to be changed. While inspecting your lifters you should use a machinist's square or a straight edge and make sure the lifter still has a small crown on the end that rides on the cam lobe. If its flat or concave it is shot.