cammed or not???

[bob]

How can you tell if a nova engine is camed up or not?-I went to have a look at a h-reg 1400SR,that was accident damaged,and up for ?350,it has 4 branch on it,and custom system,I was told it had head work and a race cam in it,but as it aint driveable,how do I know whether it has one in or not? the head is apparently a pnc or pmc head? I dunno I was tired when I was looking at it and hadnt thought bout buying it much-but the lad may break it and wants peanuts for the head,wot do u think?

[rob.slader]

Best way is to see if the engine will run, you can't tell if a car has an uprated cam in it by just looking down the oil filler hole. If it was running you can sometimes tell on tick-over if it is cammed, they usually sound lumpy depending on the type of cam. Thats the only way I can think of really, unless this guy has paperwork to prove it. If he wants peanuts for the head you should go for it, I doublt you will have problems flogging it on if you decide not to have it, try to get paperwork for it though if you can. But one thing to watch out is it may be damaged, you will be able to tell if you get it running. Risky if it's wont run.

[mix n match]

I agree with rob.slader

another way to tell is to remove the dizzy if you do this make a mark on the dizzy and head so it can be put back in EXACTLEY the same place. this would work on mine cos it has the make/model stamped on this end but the owner might not let you take the dizzy off....worth a try :wink:

[bob]

it sounded lumpy on start up,but I thought the autochoke wudve been playing up like on mine,and its been stood for 1-2weeks in the garage. confused now,he bort the car,and everyone knows that its had this n that done to it,but theres no reciepts so I just gotta take his word

[rob.slader]

Did you let the car warm up enough for the auto choke to come off, if it was still pretty lumpy after that, I would guess it has got the cam in it. Really you need to know what it sounds like in the first place, this is hard to explain by typing it out! In my opinion, if it's cheap enough, go for it and if you decide along the line you don't want, someone else will be happy to buy it. Basically at the end of the day it's your decision, no one can influence that, so do what you feel happy with.

[pukka-novasr]

take off the dizzy (13mm nut) then look at the stamping at the end of the cam if its a pmc one it should start wiv pmc etc or kent usaully start wiv ast, but standard cams usaully just av one letter stamped on them not sure wat it is though. Hope tis helps.