Re: building up non ho
going to be important to note whether your engine is roller or flat tappet cam. i have no idea what that vintage would be, you really don't see too many around from that era. if it has a roller cam, the distributor needs a steel gear. if it's flat tappet, then it needs a cast gear. IIRC the shafts were different sizes, e.g. you simply just can't change the gear. i just wouldn't even mess with the brass gear, but JMO.
the distributor is a moot point. if you have a flat tappet cam, you're going to have to stick with it. the roller lifter engines have 2 holes drilled and tapped in the lifter valley for the spider to keep the lifters from rotating. it's possible to drill and tap that, but i recall reading somewhere the lifter bores are different - for that you'd need a smaller base circle camshaft if converting to roller. you also can't use flat tappet lifters on a roller cam and vise versa.
if roller get an HO, if flat tappet talk to a cam grinder and have one custom ground to avoid hitting your pistons. always check piston to valve clearance either way you go.
e7te would be decent and cheap. gt40s are harder to come by, but no issues using them in place of e7s. gt40p heads have odd spark plug angles which may add a headache with exhaust and plug wires.
that article is accurate, for 86-88. yours is an '83, right? the reason that works so easily is because they had roller cams like the HO engine does. yours may not have roller lifters (I wouldn't count on it).
Last edited by Psychopete; 10-22-2013 at 01:19 PM.
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