Dak101

Purchased the Ford Racing Hot Rod Performance Camshafts last week and tackled this swap starting on Friday at two in the afternoon, I followed the customer submitted directions on AmericanMuscle.com step by step taking my time at first, cleaning everything as I went. Then had a buddy come over to help me with the actual changing of the camshaft, unfortunately he handed me the driver's side camshaft on the passenger side and when tightening down the bearing caps, the front most cap, which is the largest of the five due to the camshaft on this side being about a quarter inch shorter, the side of it snapped off due to it coming down incorrectly on the camshaft. I think it would have been beneficial of Ford to make it very clear which side is which so the mistake could not have been made. Ford is claiming I need to buy a $1200 head because they do not sell those bearing caps separately. I'm now Currently in the process of trying to locate one. I'm going to just put this out there so no one else makes my same mistake, whatever you do, do NOT try and JB Weld a cap back together. I was desperate and I did what I had to do to make things work, and it lasted barely 30 minutes before that piece snapped off again, which I am very lucky it did not completely screw up my whole engine. I then read on a forum that I could attempt to tig weld it back together, which had worked for another guy with a similar scenario, but the cast iron aluminum that they are made of is just not capable of being welded properly and the broken piece warped tremendously halfway through welding it.

I'm now in desperate need of a camshaft bearing cap, passenger side, for a 2010 Mustang GT with a 4.6L V8, which is the same for 2005-2010, and also I believe for some model explorers and F-Series trucks. I've check local junkyards, mustangs shops, and craigslist ads with no luck.

Here's some pics:

Lem-06

did you not organize which cap goes to which tower on each head?

thats like the obvious step when your removing the caps, hope you didnt mis-place the rest of the caps in order

kirk35

Unfortunately you can't (read shouldn't) just grab a cap out of another engine and slap it in there. As a standard part of the machining process the cam bores (caps/cylinder head) are line bored and honed as an assembly.

If you bolt on a junkyard cap you run the chance of having too much/not enough clamping force on the bearing or a misaligned bearing. Any of these could destroy your new camshaft in a matter of minutes.

The proper way to address the problem is to pull the head, find a new cap and take them both to a reputable machine shop to be properly line bored and honed to size.

Dak101

I fortunately found the bearing cap from a craigslist post in another state and getting it shipped to me. Going to bring in both old and new caps and have them specced to fit by a machine shop. Almost in the clear. And yes all caps were taken out in order and put back in properly, just had a misforunate case where a friend helping me and rushed that step and was negligent to ensure the proper figment of the last cap on the wrong camshaft.

hammeron

sorry this happened and i hope everything turns out ok in the end.

in Fords defense, they do state which cam goes on which side, it is on page 1 of the
frpp hot rod cam installation guide.

Dak101

Ah, fair enough, I followed the customer submitted because it was much more user friendly with the pictures and descriptions. Should be getting it back together next week and I'll let you all know the results. Ham I saw that you had done some troubleshooting with another guy about some engine codes he was throwing after the install, and that thread helped me out a ton with troubleshooting mine so I do appreciate the help.

hammeron

hopefully everything will work out....is there an update on your situation?

personally, i think i would just purchase another bearing cap, install it and see how it goes.

Dak101

New bearing cap has been in for about two weeks, despite all the doubters. Things seem to be running good. Not getting the power out of the car as I was before, so I think I have some things to dial in with the tune. Bama suggested I go get the car dynoed in order to improve performance. Which seems a little silly that I would pay for free tunes for life and now the company that is supposed to be able to dial in a tune with me is suggesting I go pay for some dyno tune. When driving like a normal human being the car acts and feels exactly as I intended it to with the cams, idle sounds healthy, gears are smooth. However when I step on it, it just doesn't want to get up and go, it sorta lags. I intended on some low end power loss, but we're talking major change. Like I was getting yelled at out at the drags before the cams for not having a helmet because I was running under 14 seconds (13.8 and 13.9's). Now the car won't do better than a 17. With a good reaction time, on point launch, quick gear changes.

jwog666

there are many variables to a tune, and they all change depending on what mods and parts u have installed. they can get u close without the dyno, but to get the tune perfect you will have to dyno there is no getting around it

Antraveon

What year truck were you referring too because I am having the same problem with my main bearing cap and I found an 02 Ford Expedition 4.6 and I was wondering would that cap fit my 2010 Mustang Gt