Cam Question!!

[RangerDangerr]

I ordered a reman head from a company and when it got here, I'm pretty sure the cams are mixed up and on the wrong sides.

I'm pretty sure the intake cam is the one that has the little nub on the end, but they have it on the exhaust side. Does this mean that they machined everything to spec with the cams installed in the wrong location?

Not really sure what to do...

The lobes look the same so can I just switch them and be fine?

 

[adsm08]

Check around on the cams for markings. A lot of Ford DOHC cams will have an E or and I stamped in them somewhere to indicated if they are intake or exhaust.

 

[RangerDangerr]

Check around on the cams for markings. A lot of Ford DOHC cams will have an E or and I stamped in them somewhere to indicated if they are intake or exhaust.

There are no markings like that, but I looked up the casting numbers on them and everything points to them being on the wrong sides.

One is a 6272 and the other is a 6274 a quick google search indicates they may have been installed wrong. Also re-manufactured heads on ebay show pictures with them installed differently.


So what are my options? Can I just switch them and be ok? or were these machined to spec with the cams wrong so the clearances and stuff will be off?

 

[adsm08]

If the cam journals were machined at all they would need to have bearings put in them, so I wouldn't worry about that too much.

The bigger concern and even this is not insurmountable, is making sure the clearance to the buckets is correct. The valve lash is adjusted on that engine with selective thicknesses of the buckets on top of the valves. Take a set of feeler gauges and check the current clearance between the cam lobe and valve bucket with the point of the lobe pointing straight up. Then swap the cams and check again. If they are fairly close, like .010" you should be OK. I have had to re-do a few of those heads and my clearances always come up out of spec, but the next shim in either direction will take it farther out of spec.

 

[RangerDangerr]

Swapped them, checked the clearances, they all are in spec according to alldata!

Should be good to go, thanks.