How to: Change your cam (AUi6)

[The Monty]

Thought people might be a little interested in this, so here we go.
Tools needed:
8, 10, 13, 17, 23mm sockets, spanners, and ratcheting spanners (all would help, any will do)
3 mm Allen key with a long shaft
Torque wrench
Lever bar
Philips head screwdriver
Spark plug socket

1. Take off your intake, leaving behind your airbox bottom half.
There is 5 x 10mm bolts to undo. Also disconnect your oil breather from your intake and/or rocker cover.




2. Number your plug leads with a nikko or some tape. Disconnect them all, and lie them over your intake side.




3. Disconnect your PVC valve, it just pops out, but be gentle with it. Disconnect your throttle cable from your rocker cover at the same time, its 1 x 8mm bolt. Disconnect your throttle cable from, your throttle body, just like on a pushbike with a hand brake setup. Tie the throttle cable onto the strut on your drivers side of the bonnet.





4. Pop off the hose from the brake booster that runs over the rocker cover, leaving your rocker cover free of accesories.





5. Take out your thermo fans. Take out the little hose running along the top of your thermos, it should just pop out. Disonnect the wiring loom, I use a little flat head screw driver to lightly push down on the clip. There is 2 x 10mm bolts to undo on either side of the radiator. Lift the thermos up an inch or two, then pull the drivers side out (may need a wiggle) and then the passenger side.




6. Take off your snorkle. Youve all done one of these, two little philips head screws. Then just twist, and pull.



7. Take the rocker cover off. Its just 4 x 13mm bolts. You have to lift the back of the rocker cover off first, then the front.




8. Undo and take off power steering resevoir brackets (x2) and the resevoir itself. First take off you serpentine belt, then undo the 9 x 13mm bolts, 1 x 10mm bolt, and one x 17mm nut. It will all just fall apart now. Make note of which length bolts go where, you dont want to put it back together, and keep stuffing around trying to find out which one goes where.




9. Take out the spark plugs using a spark plug socket (21mm?). Clean them up if they need it, or replace them as its a good time to.



10. Find top dead centre (TDC) using a long screwdriver to feel where Piston 1 is at its highest point before returning down. Do this by putting the screwdriver down plug hole 1 and ensuring the mark on your vernier gear is close to being perfectly inbetween the two yellow links on your timing chain.
Cable tie the chain to the vernier gear. Use a 23mm Socket to turn the crank to turn the engine.



11. Take out all 28 x 10mm rocker gear bolts. Beware not to drop ANYTHING from this point on, you dont want a socket in the bottom of your engine. Beware not to drop the sleeves sitting inside the head that the rocker bolst go into. Lever of the rocker gear and set aside.



12. Release the tension on the timing chain, using the 3mm allen key. Its on the inside of this bolt:



It simply releases when turning it a certain way, remember how you done it as this will come in handy later on. Also it may take a while to find out how to get the allen key in there.

13. Undo the Bolt that hold the vernier gear on, its a 17mm bolt. Slide off the vernier gear.



14. Lever out the cam, it may stick a little to the oily guides. Slip in the new cam, be gentle not to damage anything.


15. Put the vernier gear back on, there is a little slot where the cam will slip into. Reset the tension on the timing chain, push in, turn and allen key should pop out, check the chain is tight. Redo the bolt that goes into where the tension is set from.



16. Put the rocker gear back on, ensuring that the rocker gear is in the dowels in the head. Do it all the bolts up to 27nm, working from the middle out. Double check them when your done.



17. Re-attach the power steering resvoir and both the brackets. Its a bit fiddly, so get over it, lol.

18.Put the rocker cover back on, and all the accesories. Put the serpentine belt back on, wind the engine over with the 23mm socket on the crank to ensure everything is right. Do this for two complete revoloutins of the engine (all pistons).

19. Put the plugs and plug leads back on, reattach the throttle cable, and intake.

20. Put the thermos back in and the snorkle back on.



Double check everything, make sure you have no bolts left over, and nothing is lying oose in the engine bay.

Thats it, start it up and listen for any weird noises. If there is, shut it down, and do it all again to make sure everything is right.
If there are no noises, take it for a spin, and in first gear slowly go right up through the revrange to ensure there are no funny noises. Do this SLOWLY.

And thats all there is. Should take about 2-3 hours just going nice and slow with music, and a BBQ cooking. Thanks to Blackers10 and my mate chook for the hand to do everything.

Josh

Mods, can you please make this a sticky.