First, start by installing 4 valves into your test head with the lightest valve spring you have. In my case, I used the inner valve springs only from the Skunk2 Pro series valve springs. This keeps the amount of tension you have to keep in the chain to a minimum. Less tension in the chain makes things easier to turn.

Then, you need to rig up something like this to keep the cams in time relative to one another. With a little ingenuity, you can make it happen. Note that I have the intake cam gear pinned at 50deg. I have a custom cam gear that allows me to check clearances at individual cam angles, but that's currently for my eyes only. :p

Here's a shot of the intake valves at full lift.

The exhaust valves at full lift.

Now we start to measure valve to valve (v2v) clearance. I started with the lash set at .010". I didn't have feeler gauges thick enough, so I just stacked two together.

The v2v on my Skunk2 stage II cams, VTEC lobe @ 50deg intake advance and -5 marks on the exhaust cam gear.

Now we re-check at 0 lash.

As you can see, the v2v goes WAY down with valve lash. Let this be a warning to you people out there that like to lash things ultra tight on big cams.


Tomorrow, I should have pictures up from claying the motor.