After the mapping and verifying the camshaft timing, today we did an engine check and placement of new camshafts.

To be sure there is no problem with the cylinder where the rocker broke, we did a leak test. Remove the spark plug form the cylinder and attach the hose.

Apply air pressure to the cylinder after the car has been set in gear and on the handbrake. The pressure loss should be no more then 15%. The first measurement was find, 5%.

Now for the exciting part. The valve where the rocker broke was pushed open a couple of times. If there are any problems with the vale securely closing it should have happend by now. So we did a leak test again:

Again 5%! The engine is ok :). That was a good start to a day’s work.

The we continued with the installation of the camshafts. First set the engine in the right position. Then remove the chain tensioner.

To be safe we secured the chain to the sprockets with tiewraps.

Then the sprocket bolt was loosened. These should be fastened with 85Nm + 30° + 15°, but we were sure the weren’t!

Put the timing tool in place and a good sign was the pins fitting through the holes in the sprockets.

To prevent the chain from becoming too loose when the cam is removed, we made a wooden wedge which fits between the sprockets.

To be able to reach the bolts in the cams, it is best to remove the wheel arch liner. This saves a lot of time.

The new Catcams camshafts.

The specification are:

• 242° duration (standard: 245° duration)
• 10.2mm lift (standard: 9.5mm lift)

Interesting to see the negative radius on the cam lobes.

When you compare the old Compcams to the new Catcams the difference is even more clear.

Once the sprocket was removed from the cam, the chain remained perfectly in place.

The covers can be removed.

And then the cam can be removed.

To be sure we replaced the rockers. This seems a worth wile upgrade. The new version looks much stronger.

With the cam out of the way we used an endoscope to check for damage and loose parts from the broken rocker.

And we still found quite a lot of parts!

The lobes on the cam are greased with a special high pressure grease.

And the rockers are soaked in oil.

The new rockers can now be placed on the valves. Especially important to pay attention the correct placement. If they are not completely straight you can have the same problems as with the previous installation.

Then the camshaft can be put back in place

The movie below show how loose the rockers are.

Before replacing the intake camshaft, we placed the sprocket back on the exhaust camshaft and loosely put the bolt back in.

Replacing the intake camshaft is basically the same procedure. The only difference is it is kept in place at the left side of the head. This cover is held in place by a couple of pins at the botom of the cover. Gently tapping the cover with a soft hammer and adding bits of paper on each side will get it loose without damage.

With the original installation they use a bit more force, using a screwdriver judging by the marks.

Just in time we noticed a rough edge on the inlet camshaft!

After a bit of machining everything looked neat and the new rockers could be placed.

The greased up camshaft was put back in place and the covers were fitted.

The spocket the camshaft nicely.

Then it was a matter of finishing up. Through the wheelarch, set the camshaft bolts to the correct torque and tighten them up.

The chain tensioner has to be screwed back before placing it back. By using a long blunt object, you have to tap the chain guide from the inside so the tensioner is released. The chain was nice and tight after doing that.

After we checked everything over it was time to start the engine. As we fitted 8 new tappets on the exhaust side we knew there would be some ticking noises on initial startup untill enough oil was in them.

The initial start can be seen in the movie below.

Fortunately everything went completely ok! The ticking noise was gone very fast (probably due to the high oil pressure begin used in the engine). The engine idled nicely, even on the base 2.4 mapping that was installed. Quite a difference with the Compcams running on 15 valves.

After initial start we did a quick idle calibration with the ECU. Initial exhaust gas measurements gave the following results.

Then we did a calibration for 900 and 1000 rpm idle.

1000 rpm: CO: 0.01% vol HC: 91ppm CO2: 14.62% vol O2: 0.90% vol Lambda: 1.039

Pretty nice results. The owner wanted to have an idle of 1000rpm, so we put that last one in.

Conclusion is that the quality of the Catcams camshafts is better then those from Compcams. And this way of installing the cams seems to work nicely for this engine.

The car is going to be run in for a couple of 100 of km’s before the final ECU calibration is going to be done, including a full power test.

To be continued.