catch_15

Yesterday, I swapped a PI intake and PI cams into my 98 GT. We used PI intake gaskets and siliconed the coolant ports. Basically, we did everything by the book and the write ups i've seen on here. Firts of all, the driver's side cam doesn't seem to work with the head. There is a lot of space at the furthest journal back on the cam. Has anybody else experienced this or is it normal? And if not, why is it like this? And second, we let the car sit overnight before putting coolant in it so the silicone could set up, and now there's coolant everywhere, mostly in the back of the manifold towards the passenger side. So I guess i'm gonna have to tear it all down again and put the NPI stuff back in unless anybody knows how to fix this. Thanks in advance for any help/advice.

BlackMage

its hard to say what you might have done man. i have not done the cam swap so im not sure whats going on there. but where is the coolant exactly? is it inside the manifold runners? or ontop of the manifold? is the heater hose that connects to the manifold from the bulkhead conencted? send us some pics of the finished product

catch_15

I don't have a digital camera so I can't take pictures of it. But the majority of the coolant is sitting on top of the intake behind the plenum. I've checked the heater hoses and they're connected. There is also coolant running down the passenger side where the timing cover meets the head.

catch_15

I'm in the process of tearing it all back down right now...I would really hate to not use the PI stuff since i've already dumped a bunch of money into this swap. I'll keep you updated on the work.

Mark99GT

Did you torque the intake manifold bolts down to the proper specs or just crank them with a ratchet? What do you mean by space on the furthest journal back? Is the head's journal diameter too large for the camshaft? Can you wiggle the camshaft around in the head with the caps torqued down? Where did you get the camshafts from?

catch_15

No, I didn't torque the manifold down to specs...which I will when I put it back on. I just got the manifold and valve covers off and it looks like where i siliconed sealed up fine. About the cams though...the passenger side cam fits perfectly...no problems. The drivers side cam is basically too skinny for the caps...with the eye-crometer, i would say that there is a couple hundreths of an inch play with the cam...so unless anybody here has had the same problem and/or knows a fix for it, i'm going to put the NPI cams back in and be done with it. I got the cams from a guy in MI who swapped them into his 97 GT and then put a 4V engine in it, so he sold them to me.

Mark99GT

Hmm, well the cams should fit. Sounds like you got a bad camshaft there. Its hard to say without actually measuring the camshaft and the head. Any chance you can get the tools to measure them?

As for the manifold, there is a specific sequence and torque specs for torquing the bolts down. Id usethem when you put it back together and see if that makes a difference with the leaks.

catch_15

No, there's no way I could get a dial indicator or micrometer or anything to measure it. What gets me is the guy who sold them to me didn't have any problems out of them at all. And i'll pull the torque specs up on alldata and do what it says this time...and i'm going to do a little bit more silicone work just for insurance.

StangEatsRice

As far as the cams go, you say the one side fit perfectly and the other is loose? I'd just make sure you have them seated properly. I don't see how one would fit and the other doesn't. And for the intake i don't see how tourqueing them to spec would solve and leak problems with the coolant. I didn't use a tourque wrnech cause i didn't have mine with me and it was fine. make sure you have no damaged hoses, there all on tight, check the pi gaskets to make sure theres no damage in the seal. You couldn't tell where the coolant was coming from? I've done the swap and if you can post detailed pics i may be able to help you further.

Mark99GT

If you don't torque them down correctly you run the risk of deforming the plastic manifold so the gaskets don't seal correctly. Much like when you torque down the heads. You should start in the middle and work to the edges. Also, if you're not torquing it to spec, you may not be tightening the bolts enough because of a fear of cracking the platstic manifold (not that the torqe spec is super tight anyways, I think its like 22ft/lbs).