Camshaft Locking Tools (for an earlier 5 chain engine)
All you need to fabricate your own cam locks is a bit of flat iron and a grinder. I recommend you cut the iron to the rough outside dimensions first. Then, hold the metal into place and mark the notch to make it fit into the end of the cam. Once it's notched and fitting correctly, mark and drill the hole as your last step. Below are approximate dimensions. This tool should be the same for all early 5 chain engines on both the 986 and 911. Again, I recommend you check the measurements by holding the cam lock in place, marking the location, and grinding down as necessary. For later 3 chain engines, the process is similar, the tool will need to be double sided to lock both camshafts in place.
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| Cam locking tool - Top View |
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| Cam locking tool - Side View |
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| Cam locking tool - Bottom View |
The above is how I would recommend building the tool if you happened to have thicker steel. I started with thinner steel as that is what I had laying around. Instead of cutting out a notch as shown above, I bent the steel slightly to provide an offset. This worked fine, so it just goes to show, there many ways to make this work. Below are the pictures of the actual tool I used to successfully lock the cams of my five chain engine.
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| Camshaft locking tool |
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| Camshaft tool offset |
The video below discusses the differences between the early 5 chain Porsche Boxsters and 911s and the later 3 chain design. It also shows (as best as I could) how I installed the cam locking tools I made.
Hi Ben,
ReplyDeleteI have watched all of your IMS replacement videos as well as many of your other maintenance/repair videos. The amount of detail you put into each video has given me the confidence to tackle the IMS job. Im trying to do as much preparation as I can before I begin wrenching on the car and was wondering what thickness plate you ended up using to make your camshaft locking tools. I want to try and make the same tools based on your google sketch drawing, but saw you used a single thickness plate and just bent it to achieve the offset needed. Would you mind telling me the thickness of the plate/sheetmetal you used? Thanks again for such a detailed write up (especially the parts list you put together!).
I will try and take some pictures of the IMS bearing and send them your way for your IMS wear database/library project you mentioned in a more recent video.
Regards,
Brian
I am going to be tackling a clutch and IMS bearing replacement in the next week or so on my 2001 Boxster S. A quick question regarding this tool - how much tension is typically placed on it during the IMS change? If it is solely to lock the cams in place, and not much actual tension is placed on the cam itself - especially if I were to use something like a proper flywheel lock to prevent the crank and chains from turning - would it be possible to cut these from acrylic? I have a laser cutter and could bang a set of these out in about 10 minutes once I've drawn them up to your specifications.
ReplyDeleteFor anyone reading this .. the pressure on the cams is the springs in the engine which is significant if removing valve cover for any time of variocam work. .. For the IMS project it only holds the chains in position. So make sure you are using the right tool for the right Job.
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