I was driving my car last Saturday for the first time in a couple weeks. I had finally figured out and fixed an annoying exhaust rattle that was driving me crazy and I was just going to cruise around a bit. I was on the interstate and the engine vibrated violently for a split second and just shut off. After trying to figure out why it quit for a few minutes I found the problem. The distributor was not turning.*I pulled the distributor and the front cover to find the bolt had backed out of the cam and the dowel pin in the cam had sheared off
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I remember torqing this bolt when I built the engine but what I didn't do was use locktite on it. Lesson learned, but unfortunatly the hard way. I now have to pull the heads off because of some bent valves. I figure that instead of spending the money on rebuilding my stock gt40's I'll install some aftermarket aluminum heads.
So now I'm trying to come up with a plan for this. I was not exactly prepared to spend this kind of money right now. I have narrowed my options down to three different heads. Right now the engine has a Crower 15511 cam, port matched cobra upper and lower, mac shorties, O/R xpipe, some flowmasters, and 3.73's. I know the cam will probably not be optimum for the combo but I may to try to keep it for now if I can get the sheared pin out of it.
Option #1 Canfield 170 heads, These heads have a 18 degree valve angle which allows you to use 2.02 valves with stock pistons. Of course I'll still check my ptv clearance with any of these heads.
Option #2 TFS TW heads, A old standby that performs well and has the best price.
Option #3 Canfield 195's These would be the best performing heads but these would require a custom cam to clear the valves.
I know I don't AFR's listed but I don't want to buy a set of 1400$ heads then have to have to upgrade the springs. I will probably purchase a custom cam with options 1 or 2 down the road when I install a aftermarket intake. So what do you guys think.
.I remember torqing this bolt when I built the engine but what I didn't do was use locktite on it. Lesson learned, but unfortunatly the hard way. I now have to pull the heads off because of some bent valves. I figure that instead of spending the money on rebuilding my stock gt40's I'll install some aftermarket aluminum heads.
So now I'm trying to come up with a plan for this. I was not exactly prepared to spend this kind of money right now. I have narrowed my options down to three different heads. Right now the engine has a Crower 15511 cam, port matched cobra upper and lower, mac shorties, O/R xpipe, some flowmasters, and 3.73's. I know the cam will probably not be optimum for the combo but I may to try to keep it for now if I can get the sheared pin out of it.
Option #1 Canfield 170 heads, These heads have a 18 degree valve angle which allows you to use 2.02 valves with stock pistons. Of course I'll still check my ptv clearance with any of these heads.
Option #2 TFS TW heads, A old standby that performs well and has the best price.
Option #3 Canfield 195's These would be the best performing heads but these would require a custom cam to clear the valves.
I know I don't AFR's listed but I don't want to buy a set of 1400$ heads then have to have to upgrade the springs. I will probably purchase a custom cam with options 1 or 2 down the road when I install a aftermarket intake. So what do you guys think.
. This does make them a viable canidate for me. I wish I would have remembered this before my post. 
