Do it myself or pay someone

[la400ex]

I want to put my piston and cam in myself but i have never done anything to a four stroke engine before. I used to own a blaster and I knew how to work on it but not this. A guy that I know has a 416 and he did it him self. He told me about how many head gaskets he has blown. I have never heard of this problem. What could cause this? He also tried to port it but he said he is goin to let someone re do it. He offered to put the piston and cam in for me. It would save me 200 bucks but it might cost me in the long run if he does something wrong. Is it a hard thing to do? I really want to learn. I have a shop manual on the way. I guess I might have to use my porting money for the install. Thanks, Anthony

[ill_lil_romey]

With a service manual you can put in the cam and the piston. make sure that the cam you get is compatible with the stock springs and rocker arm though.

[la400ex]

The cam is a drop in the uses the stock springs and rockers. Do I need any special tools? Im gonna buy a torque wrench tomorrow and a feeler gauge to adjust my valves. Thanks, Anthony

[dariusld]

Do it yourself. Then all of the sudden you will be doing everything yourself. I try to do everything myself, even if I don't know how, mainly because I'm a penny pincher. Haven't had a problem yet. The 416 is my next project. Already have the cam. Just waiting for desert season to be over. Tell us how it goes. I'd rather do it myself and have problems than pay someone and have problems.

[la400ex]

Thats exactly what I want to start doing. I want to do everything to it myself. Well, as much as I can. Thanks for the advice. My parts should be coming in sometime next week. I will let yall know how it goes. Later, Ant.

[Sparks425Ex]

Buy A Service Manual and you can do it. Putting in a Cam and Pistion isn't all that hard. Pretty easy actually. And once ya take it apart you will see it and be like o this is gonna be easy.

If it is done right then you won;t have any problems.

The guy that tried to do his own porting is dumb. I say leave that job to the Pros that have a proven way that works. There are so many ways to do it it isn;t even funny.

[la400ex]

Oh yea, im definetly goin to leave the porting to a pro. There is no way i would try that. I hope this is as easy as it sounds.