Hey guys plan on switching out the cam in my car for a bit bigger one and im just wondering has anyone taken out the cam with the motor still in the car? And is it pretty hard to remove? I dont really have the garage space to remove the engine but if its ALOT easier then i will.

Thanks Kyle

 

There should be enough room if you remove the rad.

 

Remove the radiator and the hood latch support too. It will come out easily after that.

 

I did a 79 when it was new. Had to replace the carb and distributor because the stock ones wouldn't work with the bigger cam. Cam will come out with engine in.

 

Say what??

 

What?
The engine would idle but when you tried to excelerate it would back fire cough and spit. I put a dual point I had in it just to see what would happen and it ran good, but when you floored it it would bog. I removed the wire that atatched to the top of the carb and then the guy who owed the car layed rubber all over the place. It ran even better when he replaced the carb. This was a California car and I don't know why I couldn't get it to run with the stock distributor. Smog stuff.
That's my story and I'm sticken to it. 79 was a while back. And I didn't scratch the paint and I did it for $100 which included intake manifold, cam, and headers. He did give me a $100 tip after he burned up the road for about an hour.

 

Hmm, the dizzy should have been fine, especially a new one. I have a bone stock (minus the carb which is in the trunk) 79 TA sitting in the back yard. No wires to the carb at all. Same for my 78 Z sitting at my dads. Both have hot air chokes.

 

A common mistake made is for people to ground the negative side of the coil. Seen numerous cases where people complained of either no spark, or very poor spark with a new distributor and found they put hot to + and grounded the - side of the coil. - side always goes to the dist. and grounds through the plugs to make spark.
I know a few people who changed their dist. out because they didn't know this was really their problem. (not saying you had this issue, just mentioning it.)

 

The coil was in the cap and I never touched it. It was a new car so the wires with one way ends went right back were they came from. I did have to put a coil in it with the dual point. The carb did have I believe two wires that plugged into the top of the carb. They somehow kept the fuel and or secondaries from allowing the engine to get enough air/fuel to perform the way one would desire. When I dissconnected the wires from the carb while it was running the idle went way up so I reset the idle and told my friend to take it out and see if that made a difference. He was gone for an hour and I was worried he got pulled over because when he left he had the tires lit up all the way across the lot.
This was a California 79 Z28 with a 305. He got bored with that engine shortly after that and replaced it with a built 327 that helped him to loose his license.
My HPBooks Rochester carburetors book says in 79 GM came out with the Varajet 2Se that did have electronics on it and this was designed to run with the coming commputer controls in 1980. It was not computer controled in 79. There is a picture of the carb I'm refering to on the cover.
You guys had me wondering if I was developing alzhiemers. That was 31 years ago and I did drink too much back then but my long term memory is still working.
It's fun to get back into some of my books though. They really did screw up the QJ's in the 70's. Edelbrock does sell new performance QJ's that have the original metering rods that will supply the fuel needed for a good running engine. The newer QJ's ran smaller metering rods that would not interchange with the old QJ parts. The idle screws where blocked off and they worked backwards. But I'm sure you already know that.

 

Point taken on carb, you may be right. I was just saying. On another note how is the T10 set up with Gear Vendors? Would you just you a TKO instead if you had to do it over? I ask because I have looked into it but the price scared me away.