Has anyone with Martin's 5.0L conversion tried changing cams with the motor still in the car? Without extensive measurements, it appears if the radiator and hood latch mechanism were removed, the cam might come out the grill opening if the subframe was lowered just a little.

Has anyone done this?

 

There's this;Camshaft change with engine in car - MX-5 Miata Forum

And then the below.

I copied and pasted a post by Jason (from the other site) where he asked if the cam can be changed with a 5.0 in the car;

"AND THE ANSWER IS: YES!

After removing the front of the engine, the radiator and the AC condenser the cam was almost able to slide right out the mouth of the car. All I had to do was bend one of the tabs on the lip of the lower portion of the steel front reinforcement up about half an inch and I could get it out and the new one in. I didn't even have to take off the bumper cover.
I'm spending today putting it all back together after which we'll know what a stock 1992 Mustang cam with 1.72 Mustang Cobra Rockers, GT-40 heads and an Explorer intake will do...

Thanks all for your advice,
-Jason"

 

I did mine in the car with the radiator, condenser and latch out but it's an LS so doesn't count... Still I wanted to post cuz maybe these photos will be a benefit to you.



On an LS it takes a little trimming...

 

Thanks, guys!

Once again it proves, given a stout hammer, a sawzall, plus equal parts imagination and determination, there's not much the American hotrodder cannot accomplish. I shall have a go at it!

 

You could always lower the sub-frame some to clear the core support.

 

Yes, as I suggested in my original post, that makes sense as a reasonable approach as well. My only concern would be how difficult it is to get the subframe with the drivetrain bolted to it realigned to the chassis to start the bolts afterwards.

I just had an idea on that. If I support the subframe on a jack, I could remove a couple bolts diagonally across the subframe and replace them with much longer bolts, leaving at least a couple inches of threads exposed below the subframe. Then remove the final, original bolts and replace them with long bolts. This should allow the subframe to drop down a couple of inches while staying in alignment with the chassis. When the cam change is completed, the long bolts would act as a guide to reposition the subframe precisely, allowing removal of one long bolt at a time and replacement with the original fasteners.

I think that might be the best approach; don't know why that didn't occur to me previously. Wait, I just remembered that most things don't occur to me previously...

 

Damn why didn't I think of that?! Oh wait I know why... because

 

This is exactly what the trans techs in the Chevy dealer do to get the transmissions out of S10s back in the day. I would slide your cam out first to see how much clearance you need then go buy your bolts. My guess is you would not need to drop the sub frame more than 4 inches to clear it.