2G bent camshaft pins

[comsoldier20]

I am swapping out camshafts. I have removed 4 cam gears off of dsms in my day and every time I have bent the camshaft pins!

today I bent both the intake and exhaust camshaft pins. I use an adjustable wrench on the hex on the camshafts, so I believe I am removing them properly.

what should i do? should I leave it the way it is? or should I heat it up and try to bend them back? I have been using a hammer and flat punch but they wont move back. take a look at the pic.

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update: I heated up the pin for a couple of minutes with a propane torch. it seemed to help. it is still slighty bent but I dont think it will throw off the alignment?

 

[ae86drftr]

Are you removing the gears from the cams on an engine or loose?
I personally would just use my impact gun to remove the bolts however I do not know if you have access to one. Are you trying to use the cams that have the bent pins? If so I recommend you keep trying to do what you were. Heat it a little and smack it with a brass punch and a dead blow hammer

 

[PieEyedPiper]

I only learned of this happening after I'd pulled it all apart for the first time, so naturally, I was very paranoid that I'd done this since it was reportedly easy to do. Fortunately, my pins were fine.

There has to be something going on if this happens every time you do the work. Are you doing it with the belt on? That might help. I did mine with the belt off and I ended up having to use ~5ft. of bar (with me jumping and hanging on it) on the camshaft hex with 3ft. of bar on the cam nut. Even then, the gear itself stayed in position. The horrible loud *CRACK!!* ensues as the cam breaks free and everything just comes apart.
You may have to take the cams to a shop to have the pins removed and replaced. How did you deal with it the other 3 times?

Maybe some pins were soft? Either way sorry you've had to go through this so many times. To prevent damage to the cams, personally, I'd take them somewhere to have a new pin put in.

 

[donniekak]

I've taken cam gears off countless times, never had this happen. I just hold them in my hand, and use an impact.

 

[comsoldier20]

crower screwed up making my cams so i am going back to stock used ones that have the cam gears on. I placed them in a spare cylinder head and bolted down a couple cam caps. I put an adjustable on the hex of the cam with a 5 foot pvc pipe for leverage and a 17mm socket and breaker bar with another 5 foot pipe for leverage. I then push the each pipe with a separate arm. It seems that the heating method has been working slow but it is working.

It seems that the pins are not removable and I would like to salvage these cams. I guess someone could drill out the old pin and weld in another. however I heard that the alignment pin does not receive any force during engine operation. I believe its function is to make sure that your cam gear is in proper alignment with the lobes. I am going to continue propane torch heating and hammering and I'll post another pic.

 

[ColtiXim]

look here for pin swap : http://www.dsmtuners.com/forums/newbie-forum/430617-hks-camshaft-dowel-pin.html

I have replaced mine with a cutted 6mm drill and red loctited.
Work great for me

 

[comsoldier20]

thanks coltixim, Ill remember that for next time.

I continued heating and hammering for another 10 minutes. both intake and exhaust camshaft pins are still slightly bent but it is barely noticeable. I installed them into the head with the cam gears. I have just finished installing the timing belt and it turns over like butter. (mind you I have bled lifters). I am going to do a compression test on all the cylinders before start up and then hopefully compression should stay in cylinder two. Thanks for all the input everyone.

Update, car runs fine! the slight bend in the pins doesn't seem to throw off my camshaft timing marks.