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SenseAmidMadness
New Member
- Joined
- Oct 4, 2024
- Messages
- 1
- City
- Tennessee
- Vehicle Year
- 1995
- Engine
- 2.3 (4 Cylinder)
- Transmission
- Manual
- Total Lift
- Stock
- Total Drop
- Stock
Hey Ranger Station folks, first time poster here. I've gotten a ton of useful advice from this forum and intend to contribute where I can to the Tech Library, but for now I've got another question I can't find a direct answer to.
Has anybody here ever modified their later (1995-2001) stamped camshaft followers to fit the older, larger-stem-diameter valves? If so, how did you do it?
I ask because I have a set of perfectly good roller followers in my stock 1995 head, and a good stock roller camshaft. I had to do a total head replacement in my truck because of the dreaded "exhaust valve recessed into the cast iron valve seat" problem. That hit me at 265,000 miles. Now I have a replacement head in the truck that has hardened valve seats and larger valves. Same timing belt profile on the belt pulley that came with it so I don't think it's a wildly different year. The previous owner told me the head originally came out of a 1995 but I have no way to confirm that other than it had the same stock D-shaped intake ports and the identical belt pulley. The camshaft and followers that came with it are flat-tappet and the cam has obnoxious amounts of lift so I want to go back to the stock cam with a set of new cam bearings.
I'm a competent-enough novice at metalworking so my plan was to do some careful hand filing and sanding to widen the stem end on my followers just enough to fit over the wider valves. What's the risk involved in doing this in a mostly-stock motor? The head is the only modified part with its larger valves and hardened seats and I do have a set of 4-pintle injectors installed, but that's it other than the flat-tappet cam and followers which will be removed.
Would rather not pay the $225 on Ebay for a set of used followers that will fit and don't particularly want to hunt through a junkyard given the time and hassle involved in removing a set of followers. If I can modify the ones I already have that aren't worth much I'd rather do that.
Has anybody here ever modified their later (1995-2001) stamped camshaft followers to fit the older, larger-stem-diameter valves? If so, how did you do it?
I ask because I have a set of perfectly good roller followers in my stock 1995 head, and a good stock roller camshaft. I had to do a total head replacement in my truck because of the dreaded "exhaust valve recessed into the cast iron valve seat" problem. That hit me at 265,000 miles. Now I have a replacement head in the truck that has hardened valve seats and larger valves. Same timing belt profile on the belt pulley that came with it so I don't think it's a wildly different year. The previous owner told me the head originally came out of a 1995 but I have no way to confirm that other than it had the same stock D-shaped intake ports and the identical belt pulley. The camshaft and followers that came with it are flat-tappet and the cam has obnoxious amounts of lift so I want to go back to the stock cam with a set of new cam bearings.
I'm a competent-enough novice at metalworking so my plan was to do some careful hand filing and sanding to widen the stem end on my followers just enough to fit over the wider valves. What's the risk involved in doing this in a mostly-stock motor? The head is the only modified part with its larger valves and hardened seats and I do have a set of 4-pintle injectors installed, but that's it other than the flat-tappet cam and followers which will be removed.
Would rather not pay the $225 on Ebay for a set of used followers that will fit and don't particularly want to hunt through a junkyard given the time and hassle involved in removing a set of followers. If I can modify the ones I already have that aren't worth much I'd rather do that.
