Today being another nice day, I made it over to my brother's (had to help him move some stuff) to use his garage to install my intake cam. Went pretty smoothly, except once I had the cam gear back on my marks were off slightly. Not sure how it happened as I zip-tied the belt to the gears as well as marking the belt and gear on the intake side. A few times of judicious juggling got it all lined up correctly. I was also a little concerned about the amount of slack in the belt between the cam gears, but bumping the engine let the tensioner take that out.

Just had one short drive on the freeway home, initial impression is of a slightly softer bottom end (below 3,000 rpm) and a slightly increased top end. More field testing to come, especially once I get my new tires!

 

yeah, I noticed no big gain up top over what a "normal" car would feel like but proteges tend to die off up top....with both cams in mine it seems to continue to pull hard like a car should!

 

Good job. chief, with all this stuff you've been doing you should have taken LOTs of pics of the installs...

Anyway, just drop & go? No shims or anything needed?

 

WIthout having a garage (plus the fact I am only home for a relatively short period) I have been fighting the weather to get stuff done. That means I don't have time for pics. If there were some way I could post the info I would, it is always nice to know what you are getting into before you do something. Of course you could always come pay me a visit and take the pictures! Or convince my gf she should give up some of her time with me so I can do so (good luck with that!).

The cam was drop and play, I didn't check the valve clearances but didn't hear any abnormal noises. One of these days I will probably check clearances just because.

 

yeah, i just dropped and went....i also checked the clearances and while they were a little off they corrected themself within a few miles.