Cam degreeing on a magnum motor

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TripleL

TripleL

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Hi all! I'm doing a cam swap into a 98 magnum motor. I'm overwhelmed with exactly how to do it on this thing. It's not a shaft mount like Toyota's or set up like other brands rockers with adjustment. That's what it looks like , right? I put a mild lunati .485 lift (1.5 ratio) 20200715 in it. So do I need a solid lifter and an adjustable pushrod to degree? Then prolly have to buy shorter pushrod set? These things eat money! Any help appreciated

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I put a Hughes double roller set in it and I'm thinking that if the factory had any adjustability it would be hard to beat! Quality piece!
 
I used an old lifter and length of dowel with a concave end for my dial indicator stem to sit in. Heads were on. As long as it moves smoothly through the bore it should be fine. Checked mine twice to be sure it was repeatable.
 
I actually bought a dowel to use instead of a lifter then after looking at it would need divot for pushrod and be the exact size/ heighth as the lifter. You used the dowel for a pushed then? Surely you didn't order different pushrods off the dowel?
 
TripleL said:
I actually bought a dowel to use instead of a lifter then after looking at it would need divot for pushrod and be the exact size/ heighth as the lifter. You used the dowel for a pushed then? Surely you didn't order different pushrods off the dowel?
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I actually used an old hydraulic roller lifter set and retainer, then shaped my dowel to fit the lifter center on my bench grinder. You won’t be pumping up your lifter anyway. You’re only measuring cam lobe lift/duration so the length of the dowel Doesn’t really matter as long as you can set up your dial indicator to move smoothly and be repeatable through the range. You only need the dowel to be long enough to be able to maintain a straight line from your lifter to your dial indicator. This way it’s fairly easy to set up.

There are lots of YouTube vids out there to help too.

I used my original pushrods on final assembly.

This is a great read http://www.hughesengines.com/Upload/productInstructions/camshaft_instructions_Aug_2019.pdf

Hope this helps.
 
Your link to Hughes wouldn't load for me but I went myself and read tech articles and looked at all the money I could spend on adjustable rockers. It never ends. I don't have any spare parts of cores to rob for a solid lifter or any other part for that matter. Ok know this isn't brain surgery but even my high school pal that's wrenched at a dodge dealership said just dot to dot it and run it
 
TripleL said:
Your link to Hughes wouldn't load for me but I went myself and read tech articles and looked at all the money I could spend on adjustable rockers. It never ends. I don't have any spare parts of cores to rob for a solid lifter or any other part for that matter. Ok know this isn't brain surgery but even my high school pal that's wrenched at a dodge dealership said just dot to dot it and run it
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That’s what lots of guys do.
Degreeing your cam just gives you piece of mind you have what you want the way you want it.
 
Degreeing a cam should be considered mandatory and it is not just for piece of mind. It is so you can put the cam where it is supposed to be. If that’s how your engines go together you might as well not check any bearing clearences either.
 
You have all the tools, all you have to do is make a hydraulic lifer solid somehow, stack washers, wooden dowel,etc and degree it. Put the installed centerline where the cam grinder intended it to be. And then you’ll know it’s correct.
 
TT5.9mag said:
Degreeing a cam should be considered mandatory and it is not just for piece of mind. It is so you can put the cam where it is supposed to be. If that’s how your engines go together you might as well not check any bearing clearences either.
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i have a question about this as well.
hope the op doesnt mind me asking.
ive been told a few times that the Magnum-318-360 cams were always installed advanced?
and that we could recover bottom end by retarding the cam.
is there any Truth to this??
and ty.
 
I’m not sure if the stock magnums cams have ground in advance or not I have never degreed a stock one. A lot of aftermarket cams do have advance ground in. Hope that helps.
 
67dartgtgo said:
I actually used an old hydraulic roller lifter set and retainer, then shaped my dowel to fit the lifter center on my bench grinder. You won’t be pumping up your lifter anyway. You’re only measuring cam lobe lift/duration so the length of the dowel Doesn’t really matter as long as you can set up your dial indicator to move smoothly and be repeatable through the range. You only need the dowel to be long enough to be able to maintain a straight line from your lifter to your dial indicator. This way it’s fairly easy to set up.

There are lots of YouTube vids out there to help too.

I used my original pushrods on final assembly.

This is a great read http://www.hughesengines.com/Upload/productInstructions/camshaft_instructions_Aug_2019.pdf

Hope this helps.
Click to expand...
Good info well laid out. How much lift did you have
 
TT5.9mag said:
Degreeing a cam should be considered mandatory and it is not just for piece of mind. It is so you can put the cam where it is supposed to be. If that’s how your engines go together you might as well not check any bearing clearences either.
Click to expand...
If you don't degree your cam your guaranteed to not know exactly what you have and if it's correct for what you want or even what you bought matching your cam card specs or if it's installed on the line you want.
It's def always a good idea.
 
TripleL, please let us know how she runs when you're finished.

I have that exact Lunati cam sitting on the shelf waiting to go into my 5.9
Just might be a while before I get to it.
 
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