How Not to prepare for the GS Nationals.

Discussion in 'Race 400/430/455' started by Eric Ruge, Sep 11, 2017.

  1. Eric Ruge

    Eric Ruge Midwest Buick Mafia

    1505165961363.jpg 1505166016147.jpg This happened Saturday night in the burn out box. Bent 6 exhaust valves and 2 intakes. Guess I will stay home and work on it.​
     
  2. hugger

    hugger Well-Known Member

    Think it's worth putting 2 more holes for another couple bolts?

    What bolts were in it?
     
  3. Gallagher

    Gallagher Founders Club Member

    Ouch.
    Sorry to hear that.
     
  4. Eric Ruge

    Eric Ruge Midwest Buick Mafia

    I was using stock factory bolts. Never had a problem before.
    One of the bolts fell out, maybe I got distracted and forgot to thread lock that bolt ? I never have liked that the bolts don't fit tight in the gear. Might try some shouldered ARP bolts and cut them to length.
    I like the four bolt idea, gonna look into that. Thanks for the idea !
     
  5. Jim Weise

    Jim Weise EFI/DIS 482

    Almost certainly the bolts loosened up.. one fell out, the ensuing motion and twisting of the loose gear broke the other one.

    I, and many other folks, have run that setup with 800+ lbs roller cam springs, and never broken those bolts, it's not a concern that I am aware of. Although I do not use the stock bolts..

    TA has some nice ARP crank gear bolts.- although I often use a couple of their oil pan bolts, I have had a few around from left over/unused TA/ ARP oil pan bolt kits over the years. They work great..

    JW
     
  6. Eric Ruge

    Eric Ruge Midwest Buick Mafia

    Jim,
    No doubt the one bolt loosened up. I don't even see thread locker in the cam. Ugh.. I am definitely going to upgrade the bolts.
    Thank you for your input.
     
  7. hugger

    hugger Well-Known Member

    Instead of doing a shoulder bolt a bushing could be inserted in the gear to snug it up, just another idea to improve it
     
    Tuna likes this.
  8. Eric Ruge

    Eric Ruge Midwest Buick Mafia

    All back together and running again ! Took a new set of valves and timing set.
    I did notice that both bolt holes in the old cam gear measured .365 in diameter. The new cam gear had one hole that was .365 and the other is .320. So there was hardly any rotational movement of the gear on the cam. I did go ahead and pin the gear to the cam with a 1/4 in. steel pin. Can't wait to get back to the track this weekend !
     
    BuickGSrules and slimfromnz like this.
  9. Dave Mongeon

    Dave Mongeon Well-Known Member

    I lost a cam gear in Salem in 05 almost the same[​IMG] result. I added the two bolts and wired them .
    ain't comin off again! lol
    upload_2017-10-31_23-41-25.png
     

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