So, unfortunately the camshaft out of my iron duke got damaged after removal. It was fine, and I was gonna throw it in my car so it would be completely out of the way.However, I decided to put the inspection plate and timing covers back on first. Somehow 2 house jacks I was using to mock the cradle fit up, just decided to tip over and smash the camshaft in its trash bag and really marred up the lobes. Ticks me off because those house jacks have never ever just tipped over, but of course when they do decide to it has to be on something important.
Anyway I already have the metal timing gears and I just placed a order on the fiero store for a camshaft.
I was planning on having a machinist take off the new timing gear, but being half the battle will hopefully be done now, as long as the fiero store has camshafts, would it be possible for me to, like put this camshaft in the fridge and warm up a bit the cast aluminum gear with some superlube teflon grease and slide it on? Or just take to a machinist still. Cause I'm all for doing most things myself.
[This message has been edited by Gizmo0816 (edited 11-24-2025).]
Oh another question, I've seen a lot of people talk about the camshaft gear, but not so much the crankshaft gear. Since they are mated parts, they both gotta be changed, so is there anything special about the crankshaft's gear like the camshafts or just pull it off?
So, unfortunately the camshaft out of my iron duke got damaged after removal. It was fine, and I was gonna throw it in my car so it would be completely out of the way.However, I decided to put the inspection plate and timing covers back on first. Somehow 2 house jacks I was using to mock the cradle fit up, just decided to tip over and smash the camshaft in its trash bag and really marred up the lobes. Ticks me off because those house jacks have never ever just tipped over, but of course when they do decide to it has to be on something important.
Anyway I already have the metal timing gears and I just placed a order on the fiero store for a camshaft.
I was planning on having a machinist take off the new timing gear, but being half the battle will hopefully be done now, as long as the fiero store has camshafts, would it be possible for me to, like put this camshaft in the fridge and warm up a bit the cast aluminum gear with some superlube teflon grease and slide it on? Or just take to a machinist still. Cause I'm all for doing most things myself.
... it will help immensely. My daughter rebuilt her Iron Duke, and we used a new camshaft and replaced the gear with one from Cloyes. Cloyes sells an all aluminum timing gear set, which I highly recommend. It's better than the fibrous one on the crank (which will break). But it's nearly impossible to properly mount the timing gear onto the camshaft by yourself without damaging it.
The "home" way is to heat up the steel cam gear in the oven, and then take your camshaft and put it in the freezer.
The two then meet... QUICKLY... where you have to pound the timing gear onto the camshaft.
There's so much that can go wrong though, like... it cools off too quickly and gets stuck half-way on, or you bend the camshaft. Dude, it's just not worth it, trust me... TRUST me.
Easiest thing to do is take the camshaft into a machine shop and ask them to press it on for you. They do this so often they don't even think twice about it. They have the proper mounts and all the proper fittings for making sure it's done right.
LAST THING, and just as important... there is a cam retaining plate and a bearing that needs to be installed between the cam gear and the camshaft. You probably know what I'm talking about, but I can't tell you how many people I read about on the internet that installed the cam gear but forgot to put the plate and bearing on. It looks like this:
There's a specific one for our engine. It has a little beveled ring that must be installed along with the cam plate. The machine shop will know what to do.
They'll probably charge you like $40 bucks... not even worth trying to do it yourself.
[This message has been edited by 82-T/A [At Work] (edited 11-24-2025).]
Oh another question, I've seen a lot of people talk about the camshaft gear, but not so much the crankshaft gear. Since they are mated parts, they both gotta be changed, so is there anything special about the crankshaft's gear like the camshafts or just pull it off?
Also, I'll mention... the Iron Duke motor is a "zero lash" motor. That means that any wear to the rocker arms, valve stems, pushrods, and lifters, will result in a lower effective valve lift. So you actually, legitimately, lose horsepower as the engine wears out. So if you can stomach it, I'd replace the rocker arms, the valves, the pushrods, and the lifters. You'll want to replace the lifters of course anyway.
Is this an 84 with solid lifters? Or is it an 85+ with roller lifters?
If you have solid lifters, you'll want to go with the lifters that are drilled to improve cam oiling, otherwise you stand the chance of possibly wiping out a cam lobe during break-in.
Make sure you assemble everything with assembly lube.
But just to re-iterate, definitely watch my daughter's video (and the one that comes after it). She details everything you need about rebuilding the engine. The videos that come before that also talk about measuring bore clearance, ordering pistons and the proper rings, etc. It's all in there.
Also, I'll mention... the Iron Duke motor is a "zero lash" motor. That means that any wear to the rocker arms, valve stems, pushrods, and lifters, will result in a lower effective valve lift. So you actually, legitimately, lose horsepower as the engine wears out. So if you can stomach it, I'd replace the rocker arms, the valves, the pushrods, and the lifters. You'll want to replace the lifters of course anyway.
Is this an 84 with solid lifters? Or is it an 85+ with roller lifters?
If you have solid lifters, you'll want to go with the lifters that are drilled to improve cam oiling, otherwise you stand the chance of possibly wiping out a cam lobe during break-in.
Make sure you assemble everything with assembly lube.
But just to re-iterate, definitely watch my daughter's video (and the one that comes after it). She details everything you need about rebuilding the engine. The videos that come before that also talk about measuring bore clearance, ordering pistons and the proper rings, etc. It's all in there.
I'll give that video a watch when the camshaft gets here, but yeah I got all the stuff I need a few months ago, just have been working on other aspects of the car. I got new lifters coming with the camshaft, but I'm gonna hold off on the rest cause it should be easy enough to replace the valves, pushrod, and rocker arms with the engine installed right? Cause I got bigger things to worry about on this car than the engine and this project is already surpassing how much I thought it would cost. It's also not like I went out and bought a race horse, so I don't care about how much power its putting out honestly, just as long as it keeps on trucking. The only reason i'm working on the engine is because its out of the car and I decided to replace the water pump, timing gears, and address the rust on the outside of the oil pan. The rust repair is where most of the money's going, but yeah i'll just have a machinist do it, I didn't think it'd be worth the hassle, but more than likely i'm gonna have to go to a bigger city to get that done.
[This message has been edited by Gizmo0816 (edited 11-26-2025).]
