heads and camhousing
 

When rebuilding the engine, everything fresh
Wayne's book says put the heads on the engine
then the camhousing

but if you're doing a valve to piston clearance check , you need the whole assembly on and off a couple of times


does anyone assemble the heads, and the camhousing as a unit
then puts it on as a unit?

i know some folks disassemble and engine that way , but can you reassemble it like that? any drawbacks? reasons not to do it this way?

I don't do it that way (heads+cam towers as a unit) but I think the most engine builders do. The reason I mount them seperately is because I like put a straight edge across the tops of the heads to check that everything looks even after I torque them down.

Tip:
If you torque the heads and then attempt to put the cam carrier on, the studs/pin on the heads may not be perfectly aligned with the holes in the came carrier because on some motors the heads can "float"/move around a little on top of the cylinder.

To get around this, I lay the cam carrier on the heads and snug up the head stud nuts (enough that the heads aren't going to move around). Then I take off the cam carrier and torque the heads.

-Chris

Hey Stijn,
I rebuilt the top end of a 78 911 a few months ago and thats exactly how i did it. Took the cam housing/heads off as one unit and installed them as one unit. I didn't see any drawbacks from doing so, and as Chris pointed out about the head hight, if you measure it all first there shouldn't be any problems. I liked doing it off the engine because it allowed me to sit at my bench and install all the rocker arms and rocker shafts. I don't think its a matter of good/bad, more or less preference.

sweet, then that's how i'll do it... like you said don , you can do it at a table, sitting down

thanks for the replies