Snuggles, you guys need to make sure you do this right. If need be, hold off until you can get someone with more experience in there to help you. If you think you can finish up in good shape, that'* fine, but I'm seeing a string of posts that makes me nervous about you guys' experience level trying to get this motor back together. I'm not trying to dog you, but I don't want to see irreparable damage done to your motor. You'll be REALLY frustrated if the motor gets trashed due to an oversight.

These cam swaps are targeted toward people who have experience doing internal work on engines, and some information is excluded in the instructions that is assumed to be common knowledge for engine builders. I'm not going to lie to you... neglecting to pull off the valve covers and disassemble the valvetrain is a pretty major mistake, though no damage is done. If you or your buddy are not familiar with standard rebuilding techniques on a pushrod motor, you may want to put the brakes on this project until you can find another person to walk you guys through the process. Borrow a car in the meantime if you have to. You just need to realize the ramifications of your decisions as you progress, and know that the next mistake or "we didn't know..." could be the one that kills your motor.

Again, I'm not trying to insult you... I just want to see you make smart choices about your experience level.

WTF.... autozone just charged me 13.99 EACH valve lifter. They said thats how much they were not 13.99 per box. that had a qt. of 4. I said bullshit. Now I have them once again WTF am i supposed to do? These guys haven't the slightest idea of what there talking about.

They were Mellings....and yeah, I thought that price was a bit low too, but I wasn't going to argue! The guy that was helping me was kinda new, and I asked him if that was per lifter or if it was per box...he said "per box".

Hey, if I got a good deal on them, then it was meant to be!

K, back on topic now

http://home.cinci.rr.com/poot/cam/caminstall.html
These are the insturtions I sent sugs to help his mechanic buddy with the install. If you read them it does tell you to disassemble the valvetrain before even taking off the HB....

its no big deal... everything is okay now. but i got the mellings lifters for 10 dollars apiece. jacked them for 130 bucks for all 12. got them lubed up and put them in. we installed the cam but didn't have enough time to finish timing the cam. We're just about finished with that then we're going to bolt it down and hopefully smooth sailling from there. I think we just misse read the instructions. no big deal mike. lol. Only thing that sucked was we had to replace the oil pan gasket. 40 dollars. ouch. Lifters 130 dollars ouch. Lol. anyways. Thats our progress. Once we finish im going to post all the pictures that went on. i have about 7 right. probably around 14 total once im finished. Anyways thanks for everyones help.