mustangman281

NO! NO! you have to use the cam caps that were on the head and put them in the exact same spot they came out of. If not your cam will sieze up in the head.

nickmckinney

+1 and the different valve cover and you would not know the difference unless you were looking under the hood.

al02gt

Looks like the head will work fine so far.

I removed the Windsor cam and followers and compared it to the Romeo cam. Everything looked very close. So I cleaned everything and put 30w oil on all the contact/bearing surfaces.

The Romeo cam went right in with no problems. I then oiled the romeo girdles and put them into place. Cam turns fine with no movement in the Romeo girdles.

Intake and exhaust gaskets also fit.

So I will clean everything and check it with plastigauge to be sure. But right now it looks like the Romeo cam and girdle will bolt right up. Both heads say PI on them, and all the specs are the same for combustion chambers, runners, cc, etc.

I'm debating putting plug inserts into the Windsor head while it's out of the car. But I may opt to going with long thread plugs and checking them every oil change.

So hopefully the daily driver will be back on the road soon.

al02gt

I was going to do that, however I decided to swap my Romeo cam and girdle in the Windsor head. I'm going to use an emory cloth to make sure everything is smooth and check the clearances dry with plasticguage.

So would it be better to run the windsor head just like I got it? I just felt safer with a cam that I new matched the other head.

But since I switched cams, I was thinking that using the matching romeo girdles would be ok. But I can see how it could seize up if it wasn't oiled properly.

al02gt

So if I use the Romeo cam, do I need to use the matching romeo aluminium girdle, or use the windsor individual cast caps..

Thats the point I'm at now I suppose.

nickmckinney

You HAVE to use the cam caps that came with the head.

Frostbitten

if they are used heads then you need to use the same cams that were in it beforehand so the wear pattern matches up and it doesnt wear the cam caps different or seize up like the other guy said. i would never had used different heads on my car, but if it works out in the end then much props. I would just be too afraid of having something not match up correctly or have some kind of issues down the road.

al02gt

Thats no problem. I numbered each windsor cam journal cap to make sure. I believe they are already numbered starting from #1 towards the transmission.

What if you buy aftermarket girdles? Could you use them?

I'm trying to figure out what using the Romeo girdles may cause the cam to sieze. If I used plasticguage to check clearance on each journal, wouldn't this be enough?

I'm guessing that the problem would be with clearance, that would lead to an oiling issue, that would run the cam journal dry and seize it in the head. Thats why I was going to check the clearance with plasticguage.

It's not a problem to put the windsor journal caps on, I just like the idea of both sides matching.

al02gt

I know. I paid Ford to put a TImesert insert in the stock Romeo head when it blew out #4. It caused a lot of problems, so I decided to tear the engine down. So here I am now. 2 months later and the car still isn't running.

I feel better using the Romeo cam from my old head because I know it matches perfectly.

I'll check the clearances and see what happens. I guess if the cam seizes up and the engine lets go, I'll have learned a very valuable lesson.

mustangman281

The cam caps and rides are bored from the factory. No two cams caps are the same. If you mix up the cam caps then the head is useless unless you want to pay a machine shop to rebore it. Clearance top and bottom isn't the problem its the sides where the caps meet the rides. If they are off just a little they will gouge you cam and the metal shavings will sieze the cam and probably screw up alot more like oil pump, crank/rod bearings, cylinder walls and other cam. Do it right and use the caps that came with the head. It doesn't matter what cam you put in (windsor or romeo or aftermarket) as long as you use the caps for that head.