Cam locking tool

[bstarr3]

I've had no luck turning up a cam locking tool I can borrow locally, so I guess I'm going to try the two adjustable wrenches held together by a vise-grip. For anyone who's done that trick, are there any things I need to look out for or be careful of in setting it up? Or alternate ideas for a DIY solution? I saw that some people have machined their own, but I have no access to machining tools. Also, if someone wants to lend me a cam locking tool, that would also be a good solution!:)

Thanks

[Simon S]

the adjustable wrenches and vise-grip trick will work fine.

the most interesting/creative alternative DIY trick I saw was with a chunk of wood carved/trimmed out with notches for the cam 'squares'.. but that's more work than is needed imo..

[bwawuz02]

I have one you can borrow... PM me

[bmwman91]

Wrenches & a vise grip are fine. It is really hard to get both cams to sit perfectly at TDC since the lifters push on them and generally want to knock them out of alignment since the tensioner isn't pushing with the motor off. Get them as close as possible to TDC and vise grip them into place. Also get the flywheel locked at TDC. You can do that with an 8mm bolt or rod via a little port in the back of the block on the driver's side (there's usually a plastic plug covering it).

Once you are done doing whatever you are doing, manually level the cams. I always use a straight edge to ensure that the square ends of the lobes are perfectly parallel, and I have someone else tighten the cam sprocket bolts while I hold the cams. Just make sure that there is no slack in the chain between the intake cam & the crank.

If I am pulling the timing covers, I always zip-tie the chain to the cam cam sprockets & crank sprocket to keep everything roughly aligned.

[TobyB]

I think a lot of the paranoia about dohc cams comes from the M50/52-

I made a cam- holding tool, a cam- compression tool yadda yadda and at
the end of the whole head gasket job realized that it didn't matter that much...

it was easy to realign everything when installing the chain and sprockets, and the cams didn't want
to suddenly jump into low earth orbit...


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