Better Engine Building: The Easy Way to Degree Your Camshaft 

Great tutorial. Thanks for sharing your knowledge.

This is a video degreeing a camshaft, best video I've ever seen , most people don't realize how important it is to set the dial indicator up on the center of the Piston .watch this video if your interested in doing it right, when through, put harmonic balancer on engine and reset degree wheel to tdc check and see if balancer is lined up on tdc with timing tab,this way you will have accurate ignition timing when set.

Look friends, just because you " dialed in a cam according to the manufacturer, doesn't mean you will get the most out of it. As an example, I built a super stock cleveor that was slow coming out of a turn running with wedge engines. I kept retarding the cam til it hit the sweet spot. Then it jumped coming out of the hole. You have to experiment and not just take it as the final word from a manufacturer. They give you a decent starting point.

Am I the only one that’s still confused 😕 😢

Omg 30 years odd as a mechanic and i never got it, till i watched your video and bam. Even verified it on a mild 302 sbf windsor build. Thankyou!!!!!

I've been building engine's for sometime now and your input is spot on. Nice tutorial... I'm in the process of restoring my 1994 Pontiac trans am with the LT1. And of course freshen up the motor. She has 183000 miles on her. But all in all the car is solid.

If these instructors ask themselves “why”, it will make their instructions much better.

This is as stated by others, the best explanation of how to degree a camshaft. I'm redoing a 350 Chevy right now, and it's been over 30 yrs since my hot rod days, and back then, we put the cams in, lining up the timing marks with the No. 1 Cylinder at TDC and away we went - and everything seemed to be fine. In this video, it seems like, what you're doing is not so much "degreeing the cam" as "verifying Cam manufacturer grind data". I say this, because at the end of the day, you put the cam in, and line up the timing marks on the timing gears, with the No. 1 Cylinder at TDC and nothing I see here, changed any of that so I am trying to understand why this is viewed as so critical to an engine build? To me, it seems the only way you could change it, would be to buy the timing gears that are adjustable, like the one in this video - but for the average joe garage mechanic - they're going to go with a timing chain set - I guess I'm just slow in the head as I don't understand why this is so critical, unless you're "verifying Cam manufacturer grind data" before committing the cam to the motor for the rebuild. I'm sure i'm missing something . . . I guess I just don't know what it is - and I know it's me, on my end . . .

Love your technical videos! AND the KOVE sponsorship is a bonus. I love mine, the stereo sound is Awesome for working in a small shop building cars or engines. Quick edit. Nowhere near 7 hrs playback time as claimed. More like 2.5 hrs tops

Great video. I have a lifter bore indicator its a great tool to eliminate the lifter pushrod dial indicator setup and is much more accurate.

It’s always confused me but you did a good job with your simple explanation😊

I've seen alot of videos on utube about engine building trying to gather knowledge and you sir are far and few in between ,👍s up to you .

Excellent video! Most people don't know what the hell degreeing a camshaft is! Thanks and God bless you and yours!

Oh using a pushrod is such a good idea! I tried putting something flat on top of the lifter to rest the dial indicator on or on the edge of the lifter and it was such a pain to get an accurate measurement, and to get the dial indicator to reach down into the valley. Thanks for the video. Watched a bunch of your others too, engine builds and such. You do quality work. Thanks again. I live in Australia, so handy to be able to get good tips from the other side of the world.

Absolutely awesome. I totally thought it was way more difficult. Thank you so much.

Excellent demo. Appreciate, value and enjoy your content. Always Premo!

I timed my engine with a small wheel. Yes, it was a PITA but it was doable. I would LOVE to have that wheel you have. Great video as always!

You did a heck of a good job with this video. 1 thing that would be really nice would be to finish the process explaining the LSA and degree the cam intake centerline while advancing the cam and explaining it. Just a thought.

Your video was very well done. One thing that I did was take an old pushrod, cut the end off and braze it onto an indicator tip. This works great for some applications.

Seems pretty straightforward when you explain it like that.

Great video! You taught me a valuable lesson; thanks for sharing.

Wow i was totally lost watching multiple videos till i seen this. He made it simple as cake!

Nice video, regards from Argentina!!

That cam card looks almost identical to this little 406 I just built for a buddy of mine. Its really nice too!

Very helpful video. Well explained and no waffle!

This is my type of learning video. Great job! Concise and to-the-point.

THANK YOU! I had trouble finding my intake centerline, not realizing that it's better to do it at .020" for an asymmetrical cam. Thanks!!!

Thank you. Thank you, thank you. I finally get it!!. Maybe you can do a video on setting up the stand,

That and connecting rods are the only things that made me nervous on my FE build. good video

You might want to go into more detail about the retarding of timing. I ran into an engine builder who had no clue of why we retard the timing on the pro engines. He was pushing the inserts out of his spark plugs and breaking pistons. I tried to talk to him about this, and he proved to be unteachable. He knew how to assemble engines, but had no clue how to tune one for more than 2000 HP.

Got it, pays to listern. Thanks

This video was very well presented

Incredible knowledge, explained clearly & straight forward ty

Thanks for the great lesson

Excellent video 👍👍

Concise and well done thank you

Sig Erson and Engle cams are excellent

What I want to know, is WHERE can I get that degree wheel!? That thing is AH-MAZ-ING! By far the best design I've ever seen...

Do you see much difference worth worrying about between degreeing it at this point and moving on, or doing this to verify it, then fine tuning it (solid lifters) at the valve spring retainer on the complete engine with deflections and all factored in..?

Not being critical here at all, I understand more after watching then I did before, but it seems that you just proved that the cam is what it says it is? If a shade tree mechanic(me) is putting one together and don't have a dial indicator or a degree wheel or adjustable timing gears...... what would I get from this?

Many thanks really helpful. Building a brand new healey engine.

one thing not really emphasized and a source of confusion is the need for degreeing because you want/need to know what the cam is doing with the valves relative to the piston position. The majority of cams are probably spot on for their grind but what is important is how that cam works in relation to it being rotated by the crankshaft sprocket. Sprocket may be off, the crankshaft keyway may not be in the right place just to name a couple of things that can effect the cam valve timing. The importance is to have all of the rotating assembly components working in unison so that you can verify correct positions or find and correct those not in spec.

Need a pro! Can I remove spring from hydraulic lifter and shim with some washers to make a solid lifter? Just for degreeing purposes? Engine is a 5.7 hemi. Thanks and great tutorial!

Is it a major necessity to degree the cam if I'm doing a moderate OE rebuild, with a very mild cam? Not going for big power, just a little higher than the OE setup.

Great video, really easy to follow instruction. Any word on the Dart SHP 427 engine build going into the Camaro yet? Man, I want to hear that engine sing...!

So what if you're using a regular timing chain set, that doesn't have the adjuster or extra bolts. And just has the normal 3 non-egged shaped bolt holes? How would you adjust the cam timing then? And what does a Cam that's something like 112+2 look like on a degree wheel?

Hey big fellow, great stuff. That timing gear; one must listen more closely for it's make! Whom makes the degree wheel, please? Regards, Adam.

I never understood why this is necessary. If you can trust a company to grind a cam, you would think they would put the key way, in the right spot. But I guess you can fine tune anything.

Great video! I’m looking forward to using the information from this video on my 351 Cleveland for my T-Bucket. Where did you get your degrees wheel?

Will the lifter compress slightly with the pushrod pressure? Do you need a solid lifter for this or soak them in oil to fill?

How was TDC determined? Piston at top of deck can also be the exhaust stroke. Right?

Never understood this step on a typical street engine, if you stick a camshaft in the engine, and a timimg gear set with normal keyways and alignment dots on the sprockets, there is not much to do with your degree wheel is it?

Sir... what 'b0ut "h0w t0 kn0w the lash in every valve"? Is there an accurate way t0 identify it? Thanks...

Who makes that degree wheel? Love it! Need one!! Thank u!

Can I Use a Degree wheel to time a new rebuild with the heads and Intake Manifold on ?

That looks confusing to me. If I only had a brain. Great video.

HEY I HAVE A QUESTION FOR YOU I HAVE A 5.7 STOCK CHEVY ENGINE OUT OF A 1990 K5 BLAZER IM JUST NOW STARTING TO SMOKE IT WAS JUST DOING IT WHEN I START IT UP ONLY NOW I SEE IT WHILE I IM DRIVING I PULL THE SPARK PLUGS OUT ALL THEM LOOK PRETTY GOOD EXCEPT FOR #8 IT WAS COVER UP PRETTY BAD WITH OIL THEN I TOOK A COMPRESSION TEST AND ALL THE CYLINDERS WERE READING 150 EXCEPT #8 WISH WAS THE ONE THAT HAD ALL THE OIL ON IT AND IT WAS READING 180 I FIGURED THAT WAS BECAUSE IT WAS ALOT OF OIL BUILD UP ON TOP OF THAT PISTON..SO I WERE JUST GOING TO DO THE HEADS ..OR JUST DO THE VALUE SEALS ...I DONT HAVE MUSH MONEY SO IM TRYING GO THE CHEAPEST WAY OUT BUT I WANT IT TO BE RIGHT..SO WHAT DOO THINK I SHOULD DO...

Look, get number one piston up just before it goes down, move the cam to up just before it goes down, then turn cam back before it starts down the other side, split the 2 point to center high cam, put the gear & chain on dot to dot

I GOT A 1990 K5 BLAZER 5.7 WITH ECU GOT ENGINE REBUILD GOT THE BLOCK BORED 30 OVER AND DID A FEW UP GRADES IM USING EX262H CAM IN IT WHAT WOULD BE A GOOD COVERTER TO USE I TOOK THE STOCK ONE OUT..AND GOT 2000 TO 2400 STALL .. IS THAT GOOD WITH THAT CAM

That degree wheel........❤❤❤❤❤

Where can I buy that timing chain set ( it looks like you have to be a dealer ) ? Also what kind of degree wheel is that ? Thank you.

You laid it down really well, thanks a lot, I really like that timing set although I'm not a Chevy fan which is irrelevant, that's a nice piece of hardware.

Oh then only need to adjust 106° for first piston as soon as first piston got exactly 106° its good to go bro? Or need to adjust all piston ?

GOOD VIDEO

How do you degree a chrysler 3.5l v6 sohc i can't find anything on it I had my cams grinned any help would be appreciated

great video very straigth forward, also im not an engine builder and I haved heard that when you degree a cam you should meseaure in more than one piston, do you think that is unnecesary or useful in any other aplication?

You ever try checking with a tenths indicator how many degrees the piston actually dwells for at tdc..?

I'm getting ready to do this for the first time on a 5.0 coyote...4 cams, no vvt. lol, at least I'll get a lot of practice for my first time degreeing cams.

Thank you for the video. I have a question that I couldn’t find an answer for it I’m google. Can I dial and degree on any piston? If I want to degree on a piston #3, I should set my degree wheel TDC on piston #3 or it’s always #1? The cam specification is general to any piston or I should ask the manufacture for the number related to the piston I will degree on. In motorcycle engine it is difficult to find a space to degree in all pistons.

What is the brand of the large degree wheel that you used to degree this cam in?

I usually check a cylinder on each side of a v8. Had a cam on a 460 ford that was 22 degrees off from the right and left side. The driver side had 120 psi and the passenger side had 80 psi. Not a good day...

Very good video, clear and easy to understand. How would you go about using that to tune? Does advancing/retarding the cam timing just move the power band or can it increase the overall power? Thanks

Question: if a mechanic is installing a new camshaft- should the degree of the new cam be off, at that be the owners problem, or should a new camshaft install with a six degree tilt be the mechanics issue? Because just got a new one put in and got a call that degree is off and now that needs to be fixed. Frustrating!

I have 2 Erson cams new that are said by Erson to be on a 108 intake center line that are a116 intake center and they never did anything to fix the problem. Buy a lot from pbm in the day

How would I do this with dometop pistons with valve reliefs?

Excellent tutorial. Many thanks. Where can I buy that degree wheel ?

Wow!! So much for what I thought was OK lol good job,thanks

Hello friend, you don't have any link where I can find the degree wheel that you use in your video, it is spectacular and I can't find it 😢

Where did you buy this degree wheel from? I want one!

Where did you get that adjustable degree wheel ? I’d like to get one but I cannot find it anywhere

Need a manufacturer link about the large degree wheel,thanks

I love your channel and videos. I actually only degree a cam if I plan on not running straight up dot to dot (like 4 degrees advanced or retarded), so I know absolutely where the timing is at in order to change just how much I want. Otherwise, with the many hundred plus engines built, I rely on the manufacture specs to be correct. Especially when paying several hundreds of dollars for custom ground race cams. Excellent explanation of how the process works.

If someone wanted to change out a cam to a slightly less lift or duration of cam . Would it be possible to use the same valves and all. Or would you have to change out springs , valves if you Changed the cam.

What do you do if you dont know what cam you have / dont know the details about it?

Finding TDC why don’t you mark the wheel when the dial stops and mark it again where it starts moving again and split it in half? Much easier to understand and go about.

So I have to buy ALL this equipment to change a camshaft on a small block chevy???

Good evening sir i am little bit confused why we moved dial guage fifty thousand an inch my concept is not clear kindly explain sir

Who makes that degree wheel?

Is it necessary for a mild daily driver combo

Hi do you have to do that with every piston and valve or just the first one

Got it, setting the cam timing on a V8 push rod engine, so no real adjustment without adjustable timing gear.

Yes , but if you want to be spot on you should check all cam lobes !!

What if your double roller timing gears and chain aren’t adjustable?

Great video...My concern is that your motor is so easy to rotate compared to my builds. Are you really turning your rotating assembly and cam over with one hand on your degree wheel?

What brand is that degree wheel?

E916001 - Erson Cams - DEGREE WHEEL 16" is that large degree wheel.

what is your job title? I like this

Ok that's all good.no one ever said how to adjust it other than skip a tooth or by distributor is all.cool

Can i use this method on SOHC motorcycle camshafts sir??

What's a good dial indicator?