Open Road

My long suffering project car (the Schwartz car) is back to the forefront after (I am ashamed to say) 22 years. I had a head gasket leak which sidelined the repair. The heads have been repaired, reinstalled and torqued. I will install the cam tower assembly in the next few days.

When I have reinstalled cam towers previously, I've always had an issue with the lifters falling out of the cam tower during reassembly. Since the engine is on an engine stand, it seems that I could turn the engine upside down and install the cam tower assembly without the fear of the lifters falling out since the lifters would now be facing upwards in the cam tower assembly.

Has anybody ever tried this method of cam tower assembly?

Is there a better way? I'm looking for any better ideas.

Thanks in advance

IIRC, when I did that on an '84 Euro 15-ish years ago, I rotated the stand so that the head was at about 90° and that worked fine.

Doing it upside down seems like a recipe for dropping the cam tower.

Some things:
1) get GB's tower gaskets
2) look long and hard in various lighting conditions for *any* irregularities on the gasket mating surfaces.
3) make damn sure the gasket alignment is perfect when you mate the pieces, else you'll be R&Ring again but with the engine installed.
4) works best with two people.

Dave,
I agree with everything you posted above and especially 1-4 of your bullet points and #2 is the reason why I pulled the engine.

So you just basically turned the engine on its side to install the cam towers?

Stepson wrote: ↑Wed Apr 22, 2026 10:37 am So you just basically turned the engine on its side to install the cam towers?

To be pedantic: we turned the engine something less than 60° from 'straight up' since the cylinder heads start out 30° from vertical.

This is what I recall. Dimly.

Dave,
I just want to reinstall the cam towers without the lifters falling out during the installation. That would be an excellent outcome and I like excellent outcomes