What should I be looking for engine health wise?

[benji]

Time to bite the bullet.
I'm just about to start Head Gasket job on Sunday; dad's bringing up a compression tester but I've no idea what the pressures should be, other than consistant (hopefully)

I've also read that if the engine is turned over with the plug leads off it will damage the coil packs; so how has it been done in the past?

I'm still deciding on a go-fast cam; havn't completely convinced myself yet so i'm hoping the cam in there is stuffed.

[Hoges]

take the plugs out and also the fuse which powers the coil packs. There's a post somewhere here re. compression numbers, remembering that the low compression engines will produce lower numbers than the HC engines delivered to the USA and reported on in rr.net.

Go faster cams generally have slightly higher lift.. do a search on google for Des Hammill's book re tuning rover V8 engines for track and road etc. There are some sites with extensive extracts which deal with cams/lifters etc. Look for the extract which covers
Chapter 6 on camshafts and valve springs. Once you start playing with high lift cams (e.g. Piper etc) which have 10.9mm (0.43") lift you may incur valve spring binding ... you may be better off looking for a cam which brings the torque on song lower in the rev range... If you need to have the heads planed, then you would be well advised to buy some shims from Turner engineering in the UK to put under the rocker posts to restore the correct preload on the hydraulic lifters. There's plenty of references on how to do this... send me a pm if you get stuck.
Good luck with it.

With some fiddling you can remove the cam with out removing the engine... I've put some photos in a couple of months back when I completed the head gasket overhaul...

PaulP38a 's personal web pages on refreshing one's head :eek: are immensely helpful
cheers

[benji]

Many thanks Hoges.
Yes I remember your post about taking out the cam in situ.
Ive been in contact with camtech in Sydney and they seem to know their stuff. I havnt run by the specs with him yet though
Ive been looking through Paul's site and other write ups too.
Regards.