engine and drivetrain Tii cam and header question

[tlapham]

You don't actually have to remove the head to swap cams. With the tool, its an easy 1 hr job. Pay a mechanic, you pay 1000 which includes his coffee breaks, health insurance, unemployment, taxes, and the company's cut, plus it will take him 2 weeks to get the job done...

If you don't have the tool, (which i did the first few times)it will be a PITA but it can be done in 4 hours depending on how good you are with your hands.

[tjones02]

CD, you are correct that with an unknown older motor it is best to remove the head to perform a cam swap to check and replace suspect headgaskets, flatness and lack of cracks in the head, etc. But in many cases we deal with, the motor health is a known quantity and we are confident in swapping cams without removal of the head. It is up to the customer if we do it in car and they get warned that any issues like headgasket failure are on them. It's their car and motor and their choice if they want the head removed for inspection during this process.

tlapham, you're right that cams can be swapped out with this tool with the head on the motor, in the car, but it's a bit more than a 1hr job as you have to remove the radiator to clear the outgoing camshaft, and clean any broken timing cover gasket material or deal with gluing the front portion of a head gasket back together.... And then, are you allowing for the time it takes to retune the injection afterwards??? Maybe just the cam swapage on a flat rate basis with a tech shortcutting many processes but not the quality work I like to do.

bnam, what you have heard is correct, a performance cam in a Tii will run rich at lower RPMs and go lean in the upper ranges. This can not usually be felt by the seat of the pants but can be seen with a wideband oxygen sensor setup. More power than stock in the short term but not safe for the longevity of the motor.

We have the factory head tools at Casey MotorSports in Petaluma and are accustomed to removing performance cams from Tii engines with the head still on. Feel free to follow the link in my Sig and give Sean Casey a call for an estimate. We have '02 and Tii customers from all over California and can work with your schedule for drop-off and pickup of your car.

With non Tii's we also can swap performance cams in..

Here's a few pictures of our tool set in use on the bench.

Cheers and HTH,

[markmac]

Always nice to have the right tool (s)! Tom, couldn't help but notice those long (long) studs on the exhaust side of the head in the pic, noticed on the intake the boss is unmachined a-la factory tii or Turbo head. Factory 2002 head?

www.alpinabmw2002.com

[tjones02]

That one happens to be a factory Turbo head, you noticed the 10mm and long exhaust studs for the turbo manifold. What you can't see are the special combustion chambers... These heads are based on 121T castings.

Did you get the B-Sedan video link I sent you??

[jgerry2002]

Modified cams tend to be a step ahead of a stock k-fish in terms of fuel delivery.

The wes ingram sport linkage works really well. It kicks in the warmup circuit above a certain rpm, depending on how its adjusted. It works with my metric mechanic cam. No its not as "perfect" as stock, but it runs very very well.

Its not perfect, but I'm sure you can tune that well enough for that other cam.

Also a wideband O2 is critical to monitor the injection. You'll see what you need pretty quickly once you install one.

First step I'd try is dump the header, you can see the mixture go .5 to 1.0 point leaner if the exhaust is too big. I've been there. I've gone back to a more stock setup through-out, and it helped.

[c.d.iesel]

back to the original question then .......

Tom - what does your shop charge $?

[tjones02]

Sean is in charge of pricing, as it is his shop... We usually charge time and materials for '02 work and most of the Tii's we get in for tuning need at least 3 hours of proper linkage replacement and adjustment, baseline valve adjustment, worn distributor, points, plugs (hate platinums.. NGK's and Bosch coppers are best in M10s) after a stock cam swap. Must have the car overnight for at least two mornings so I/we can be sure the cold start and warmup regulator are working as they should. You simply can not expect a Tii (or any older car) to start and warmup properly with just an afternoon tuneup.

So, is there a set price on swapping in a stock cam and re-tuning of a Tii... sorry to say no, as it's always a car by car basis as these are all nearly 40 years old and many other "mechanics" have had their hands in there. All I can say is that IF I don't run int ANY other problems along the way JUST the cam swap reinstalling the radiator and refilling the cooling system takes Sean or I about 2.5 hours....

[Guest Anonymous]

Did your car have standard Tii pistons. Just trying to work outifi need to get valve pockets cut in my pistons

[bnam]

Not sure as the change was done by the PO. They are higher comp pistons.

Current status:

I did tune up the linkages and the settings and the car ran well and idles very well at 900rpm.

I've installed a WB 02 sensor and an rpm sensor controlled by an Innovate LM02. Car was running pretty lean. I've adjusted the verboten screw on the pump now am at about 13.5 at WOT thru about 4K getting leaner above that.

Tuning not complete yet.

I've bought a MAP sensor as well so I can check part throttle more consistently, but am yet to install it.

My thought is to get it tuned as well as possible and see where that gets me.

Byas

[Zorac]

I've installed a WB 02 sensor and an rpm sensor controlled by an Innovate LM02.

pictures? i have an lc1 and am looking at different options for an install. probably going to put the bung on the downpipe and strap the box to the transmission tunnel beside the tranny.

[bnam]

Mounted with hook/loop tape. I figure once I get teh car tunes, I will remove it and use it only occasionally.

Byas