4/11/2002 9/6/2002>>>

    First things first I needed a good place to work, so I went down to my local Lowes and bought $80 worth of pressure treated lumber and hardware.  It took me a little over 3 hours to build and is very sturdy.  Next Friday I will be adding a very nice bench vise. 

    The next step was to remove the cam tower.  There are 12 10mm bolts and one 12mm nut holding each tower on. Here you see the rocker arms the hydraulic lifters and the valve springs exposed.

    Here is a close-up of one of the cam lobes after it has been removed from the cam tower.  Notice that the surface is smooth and even looking.  If there are any visible grooves or marks on your cam that probably means that they were run without oil at some point and are no good.  These cams came from an 83 Cressida with 150k that looked to have been very well maintained.  Also to check cam wear run your fingernail along the highest point of the cam lobe.  Feel for a ridge between the shiny area of the lobe and the brown area.  There should be little if any difference in the two areas. 

    Here are the cam tower bearings, the same thing goes for these if there are marks or grooves here its a bad things and the tower will need to be replaced as there are no replaceable bearings here.  This has been completely stripped of all parts and is ready to be cleaned.