How involved is a cam swap?

[jmead]

Well, my current plans include a K&N intake, some larger exhaust tubing w/ better flowing muffler, and an electric fan for my 76 280z. Browsing around ebay I came across a few cams designed for the l28, one for idle-5000, and one for 1800-55000rpm. I'd like to move the power down a little bit, with a little more torque off idle, even if it means sacrificing some high-end power. Will a new cam help accomplish this? And, more importantly, how involved would a cam swap be? I think I can handle the intake/exhaust/fan stuff ok, but that doesn't involve opening the engine up. Is it a simple drop-in basically? I'm really not much of an engine person (yet), and I don't want have my engine in a bunch of pieces only to realize I don't know what I'm doing. Thanks for any advice.

[spunkysandoval]

Swapping in a new cam could lower your torque curve, granted you get one with less valve over lap. It's not that difficult to swap the cams, but it you will need to do some work if you want it to last. You'll need new cam folowers, and possibly lash pads to correct the geometry.

Maybe someone here can help you in setting up the valvetrain geometry if you tell the specs of you cam. Sorry for the ambiguity, but i'm still learning myself.

[SHOTIME]

You have to replace/refinish your rockers also. Each cam puts a wear pattern in the contact patch and running just a different cam can really screw everything up. If you're one of the "while everythings already apart" type, you might want to replace your valve seals depending on how long they've been in there. The fine tuning can be confusing if you've never done it before and you can really screw the whole engine up if everything isn't precise. I'm not taking a chance on this and after I put everything together, I'm sending it out to be adjusted.

[beandip]

If you are going to be doing a cam swap, besure to replace the rockers with Nissan rockers , they will last and not eat the cam. I would recommend having the head surfaced and the valves ground and new stem seals and new lashpads all done at the shop so they will set it up properly. It might cost you a few bucks but if more that likely it will save you from spending more having it done any way when not done properly the first time. Another thing to keep low end torque keep the piping at 21/4 and SMALLER. The larger exhaust will rob low end and will perform at the top end. If you want to increase the off the line responce , change the diff gear ratio to 390 to1 . Check out geocities.com/2001/enginehtml