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As the title says, I have an overhead cam I need to remove. The only motors I have actually torn into have always been cams with pushrods. On my Mazda protege5 2.0 the valve stem seals are really bad. As in there is finally enough burning oil to fix it rather than just feeding its habits. it is at 160k so I am fine with rewarding it with new seals. I know I have to do the timing belt (should be the second one not the original, but its a non interference engine so, let her break I say.)

The mind bender for me is this darn camshaft. Does it really just unbolt/bolt on like a crankshaft? obviously it has to be torqued yada yada but it seems way to simple in my head. Keeping the timing right and the valves from dropping seems like the easy part in this process compared to the darn cam lol. It sure looks like the cam does not Also are the cam bearings replaced at this time?

Parts I think:
Water pump
timing belt
accessory belts
gaskets
camshaft seals
crankshaft seals
valve stem seals

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Brian

Do you have any pictures? Normally its just a matter of unbolting the caps but you typicall need to loosen each cap evenly to "walk" the cam loose. If you remove the one by one you risk bending something since the valve springs will try to twist the cam.

I don't think most OHC heads have cam bearings. Normally its just a journal cut in the head. Provided the engine hasn't been starved of oil or fed dirty oil it should be fine.

I'd try to find a service manual. Chances are you'll need it to figure out how to reposition the cam (or be sure to make note of the orientation prior to removing everything).

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-Andrew
Build Log
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Absolutely get a workshop manual, be it a Haynes or a factory book. If the motor is a non interference job, its a little less stressful. And as Andrew stated, unbolt the caps in a pattern in order to not bend the cam or have the cam become cocked in the journals. Other than that, it should be a pretty easy and simple job to remove the cams. I seem to recall it took me 30 minutes to swap cams (including shimming) in the 4AG that was in my old car.

Also note the cap positions and orientations so they get returned to the same positions.

Some don't have caps and the rockers have to be removed then the cam slides out of the head.

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Honey anyone?

Feh! You need to work on a Capri, Pinto, or other car with the German-designed 2-liter four. The Germans used full-circle cam bearings just like cam-in-block engines, so the cam has to be slid in from the end. Which would be fine, except they made it slide in and out the firewall side, which meant you had to pull the head first.

The engineer who designed that probably got a bonus... I think most automobile manufacturers hate their own dealer and service networks. And the end purchasers.